Maria Labo 2015

The film features performances by Mon Confiado, Rez Cortez, Baron Geisler, Rey “PJ” Abellana, Sam Pinto, Dennis Padilla, Jestoni Alarcon, Lenlen Frial, Miggs Cuaderno, and Kate Brios.

Maria is a loving and dutiful wife to her husband Ermin, a police officer, and mother to two children, Pablo and Rosalinda. When financial strain hits after Maria loses her job, she considers becoming an Overseas Filipino Worker after learning that her high school friend Emily has taken that path. Ermin is hesitant at first but eventually supports his wife’s decision, and Maria travels to Dubai to work as a domestic helper and caregiver.

In Dubai, Maria befriends Nanay Leng. After buying groceries for her employer, she is assaulted in a van and later found wandering. She is brought to a hospital, where doctors recommend that she be sent back to the Philippines. While hospitalized, Nanay Leng transfers a curse to Maria: by opening her mouth and letting an orange entity slip out and enter her, Maria would gradually transform into an aswang. In the process of passing on this power, Nanay Leng loses her immortality and dies.

Back in the Philippines, Maria is moved to a Capiz hospital, where doctors diagnose amnesia and note aggressive behavior. Ermin brings her home, but a hospital employee warns that she might not recognize him. He eventually convinces the hospital to take her back home, hoping the return to familiar surroundings might rekindle her memories.

At home, Maria appears normal at first, but she later threatens her children with a knife, insisting the act was beyond her control. Alone, the aswang curse grows stronger and takes control, culminating in the brutal act of killing her children and later being pursued by Ermin, who shoots at her as she escapes, calling her a monster.

Ermin buries their children, only to witness a remorseful Maria crying nearby as the curse reasserts itself. A wound scars her face after Ermin hacks at her with a bolo, and she escapes once more.

Rumors spread of a terrifying aswang in the town. Ermin visits an albularyo, who tells him there is no way to restore Maria to her former self. The police intensify their pursuit of the creature, and after a series of confrontations, Maria is killed. When an embalmer examines her body, he discovers the corpse is missing—and Maria is not truly gone. She remains alive, setting the stage for a haunting continuation of the tale.