Philippine cinema has always had a love-hate relationship with horror. The genre has always attracted some of the country's most popular talents, which has resulted in some remarkably affecting, at the same time spine tingling cinema. But for every good horror film, there are five more that did not deserve to see the light of day. I asked film critics Erwin Romulo and Noel Vera and film archivist Jo Atienza for some of their choice picks of horror movies from the last three decades.

The 80's was an interesting time for the genre. The SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL franchise (there are now 10, most of them bad) was just beginning, the cinematic trilogy attracting veteran directors whose short films remain memorable to this day. "Ishmael Bernal's FRIGIDYER ("Refrigerator") from the first SHAKE movie (1984) is a fine example of that rarest of genres, horror comedy," says film critic Noel Vera. The film' subject: a refrigerator that eats people.

Antonio Jose Perez's HAPLOS (Touch, 1982) is a sweet, minimalist film about has a young man who comes back to his hometown and becomes torn between his childhood sweetheart and a woman who mysteriously appears during his stay.

The director most synonymous with 80's Filipino horror would be Peque Gallaga, whose films introduced monsters to the Filipino psyche, including a baby that turns into a man-eating goblin in TIYANAK (1988). He also made popular two of Filipino 80's horror's most iconic actors: Lilia Cuntapay, whose dark, wrinkled face was the stereotype for almost every monster in the era; and Manilyn Reynes, the country's Final Girl, the spunky, often mistreated virgin who kept her wits about her even as her meaner companions got killed or eaten.

The 90's ushered in horror that at its best was brilliantly thought provoking and a its worst, badly written, badly executed facsimiles of the Japanese, Korean and Thai horror films that began to profligate the market. Films began to exhibit more individuality in the next decade, with films like Erik Matti's PA SIYAM (2004), which refers to the traditional rituals performed during the 9th day of one's death and Rico Ilarde's (who many critics count as one of the best directors of the genre) ALTAR (2007), about a shamed boxer who discovers a strange altar while renovating an old house.

Perhaps the best known Filipino horror film outside the country right now is Yam Laranas' SIGAW (SHOUT, 2004), a story about domestic violence that was based on an actual murder, which spawned the Hollywood remake THE ECHO (2008).

Box office-wise,the most successful films come from director Chito Rono and actress Kris Aquino, daughter of former president Corazon Aquino. FENG SHUI (2004), a film about a Chinese ghost that terrorizes a family, was for a time the highest grossing local film in history, earning Aquino the title of Scream Queen. Aquino also stars in SUKOB (Curse, 2006), a Rono film about half sisters who unknowingly marry on the same day, thereby unleashing an ancient curse.

More recently, there is Richard Somes' YANGGAW (POISON, 2008), which centers around a family whose eldest child has contracted a mysterious disease that transforms her into a monster at night. The film is told in the least sensationalist way possible, focusing on the family's hardships and how the daughter's sickness affects everyone around her.

As of this writing, the most recent film in this genre to show in Philippine theaters is T2 (2009 - the title is short for TENEMENT 2), which deals with fairies who kidnap human children. Stripped of its supernatural elements, the film is more drama than horror but as its box office earnings shows, the genre is still strong, no matter what form it adapts.