🌏 Happy AAPI Month!
It’s also 🪖 Memorial Day (as of the start of this writing), but I need to write a post that is AAPI-related in some way. In my years of casual/non-niche personal blogging, I’ve always written at least one blog post dedicating AAPI Month. I don’t even remember if I posted one last year because I have been bloggins sporadically. But recent discoveries around YouTube gave me a new form of amusement that made me ponder about some things in life.
🇵🇭 Analog Horror Videos – Channel 10 Manila
Lately, one of the things I’ve seen on YouTube that have been popping up in my feeds are analog horror videos. This is another form of entertainment horror like the found footage formats (sometimes called mockumentary) that we’ve seen in the past horror movies before, such as Blair Witch Project and the Japanese horror found footage film Noroi: The Curse. The only difference is that these analog horror videos are portrayed as lost media TV clips, from lost TV shows to commercials, recently found. The analog feel of seeing static screens and buzzes, the distorted sounds, the subtle hijacks, the random glitches from the old analog TVs make them seem real.
There are a lot of analog horror channels all over YouTube. But the one that caught my eye specifically are the ones released by Channel 10 Manila. I discovered the channel and a few of their videos through a horror film reactor, and I decided to check them out myself. I ended up subscribing to the channel because they release the videos sporadically, and it makes sense. According to some comments, the footage used for these videos actually existed, but were edited to suit the “horror” feel. Because of this, even Channel 10 Manila mentions this, that Channel 10 Manila is fictional.
Personally, I was never a horror fan. However, I am a mystery/suspense fan. A good horror story doesn’t have to include unnecessary jumpscares and the hack and slash scenes. Horror stories doesn’t even have to involve the supernatural or the occult like demons, vampires, and such. Many times, true terrifying horror stories are humans being terrorized by other humans.
Channel 10 Manila had these themes and tropes so far:
- Random hijacks: you see something random footage that shouldn’t be there
- Random distortions and glitches: You see a lady in the commercials repeatedly turning her head back and forth numerous times as if it has been rewinding numerous times on purpose, another lady who suddenly gets her head missing at random places, as if we’re either seeing things, imagining things, or someone purposely hijacking the footage for unknown intent.
- Conspiracy accusations and exposures: What the heck was that emblem that kept popping up at random times?
- Side plot: A missing young woman was reported in the very late hours, which makes us get hooked to learn more of this missing person’s story in the next videos… and they’ve done a good job with this.
- Psychological manipulation: Using your mindset as a horror trope? That’s a lot creepier than being haunted by ghosts or even possessed by demons
That list isn’t in its entirety, but those were the ones I caught from those videos. It’s hard to explain in detail, but how they used these themes and tropes above weren’t immediately right at your face, but they take the time with them. Slow-paced, silence, and they’ll hit you when you least expect it.
I’m pretty sure there are more Filipino analog horror channels throughout YouTube. I just need to find them when I get the chance.
👶🏻🇵🇭 Childhood and 📺 Analog TV
I was born in 1976. Yes, this year marks my entry-level middle ages. I lived in the Philippines as a child since the day I was born until 1987 at age 10. And yes, we have a giant-sized analog TV that often glitched to static screens and all of that good ol’ analog stuff.
When I first saw and watched Channel 10 Manila from that reactor channel, I started to ponder to myself:
I lived in the Philippines back in the 80s, I don’t recall a “Channel 10 Manila” ever existing when I was there…
I even had to confirm with my cousins in the Philippines about the channel and confirmed that there never was a “Channel 10 Manila.” That was when I learned about the analog horror video concept and that all of these are (mostly) fictional. And then, I was hooked.
But going back to my childhood memories with analog TV, I did recall some things about Filipino analog TV during the 80s:
The Curfew
Around 6:00 am (?), all the TV channels come on air. They always begin with the 🇵🇭 flag and Lupang Hinirang instrumental playing on the background as their sign-in, and then it usually starts off with the morning news. And then, scheduled programming begins. And when it struck midnight, all the TV channels sign off air with the same 🇵🇭 flag and Lupang Hinirang instrumental.
Just to mention this also, the 1980s were a turbulent decade back then, being under dictatorship and even if martial law ended in 1981, not much happened. We’re still under a dictatorship all the same… until 1986.
There were only 5 channels
I lived in the Metro Manila area, so I only know the TV that was aired in that area. There may be regional TV shows on the other islands and provinces, but other than that, the Metro Manila area was the only TV I was familiar with.
The channels back then were:
- BBC-2: Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation. At that time, Papa said that this was originally ABS-CBN (Alto Broadcasting System-Chronicle Broadcasting Network), but when Martial Law started, the government seized ABS-CBN, shut it down, and was replaced by this network. It went back to ABS-CBN again in 1986 after the People Power Revolution.
- MBS-4: Maharlika Broadcasting System, a state-run channel. It’s still a state-run channel today, but when Corazon Aquino became president, the channel callsign changed to PTV (People’s Television). If I can reacll clearly, it was a little bit like C-SPAN with a mix of CNN.
- GMA-7: Global Media Arts. This was THE channel for me back then. All of my favorite shows were in this channel: That’s Entertainment, GMA Supershow, the melodrama teleserye that the house maids loved to binge-watch (Anna Liza – RIP Julie Vega), and Eye to Eye (RIP Inday Badiday)… and one of my favorite mecha anime of all time, Macross (U.S. – Robotech)
- RPN-9: Radio Philippines Network. Also THE channel. All of my favorite sitcoms like John en Marsha and Student Canteen were aired here. So did the children’s shows, Sesame Street and Batibot. And those singing contests too like Ang Bagong Kampeon! Good times, yo~!
- IBC-13: Intercontinental Broadcasting Network. This is also a state-run channel, however, the only shows I remembered watching where hijacked versions of Voltes V, Daimos, and some other Super Robot anime from the ’70s… and while I was still in the Philippines, Voltes V was actually banned by the government until 1986. If that was the case, then those mecha anime that I’ve seen as a child then were definitely hijacked. I was still a child then, what do I know? 😏
Going back to the fictional Channel 10 Manila, when I first started watching the clips, I was also trying to recall how Philippine TV was during my childhood. Then I realized that in Channel 10 Manila’s description, they only went on air in 1988 and then went off air permanently two months later because of its “cursed” nature. If that channel existed, then I would’ve missed it.
But the whole bit about the glitching and the hijacking and the “Whoops, there was an error! While we fix this, watch this temporarily” and some replay show you haven’t seen in years started to air? They actually happened in real life. I was a witness.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t be watching Voltes V before 1986 😏
This wasn’t how my living room looked like. We lived in a tinier house than this. 😂
Closing Thoughts
Why did I decide to write about Filipino Analog Horror videos for my AAPI Month blog post?
Let’s admit it. There’s way too much negativity going on around the world today. Even within the Asian(-American) Community, the whole Pinoys vs. FilAms bit, the whole SEAblings vs. Koreans bit… let’s all stop and calm down now and talk about something positive. Asians in general are never perfect. No singular person will ever be perfect. Everyone knows that, and we should accept that.
I brought up Filipino analog horror videos wasn’t because of the horror or the entertainment factor. It was more nostalgia for me. Once in awhile I do watch some Filipino shows, whatever I could see in YouTube, Netflix, or Prime TV. Looking back, Filipino entertainment has gone a long way. Analog TV back in the ’80s were so limited that no one was allowed to produce stories that may be deemed controversial by the dictatorship. Today, creative freedom is now open, however…
The masa still loves the “traditional clichés” in teleseryes and movies for the same reason. The quality filmmaking suddenly ended up becoming indie-produced films because it’s not as sikat as the ones we usually see… the whole kiligan kahit mali (still gives me goosebumps/romantic vibes even if it’s wrong) and all that. I’d blame the dictatorship for all that because of the heavy censorship.
Maybe I can make a blog series about Filipino childhood memories or something. But for now, I’ll close it right here.
