Janice de Belen, who is most likely known to the younger generation as the subject of the viral “Anak ni Janice” meme, is actually hoping to reunite with the child actor who portrayed the monster baby in her 1988 horror movie, “Tiyanak.”
“I wonder where she is now. I’m sure she is already a grown woman. It’s also possible that she has children of her own,” the actress told Super in a recent interview.
She explained that while she worked with the child actor, the production team actually made several models of the monster baby. “We had a moving doll, a robot; then there was a torso puppet. We also had a doll used during scenes when I needed to toss the baby around,” she recalled.
In “Tiyanak,” codirected by the late Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes, De Belen portrayed a woman who adopts an abandoned baby, which turns out to be a kind of devil spawn known in Philippine folklore as tiyanak. The innocent-looking baby is capable of transforming into a monster that’s so powerful it can break your neck while sucking out all of your blood.
‘Most exciting’
“The shoot was the most exciting thing ever! You will see people running around the set because they were being chased by the tiyanak. The promotion was equally exciting. No one really told me why the tagline was like that,” the actress said.
She was referring to the tagline “Oh no! Ang anak ni Janice!” that was used as a catchphrase for the movie trailer. “I had just given birth to Luigi [her son with Aga Muhlach], so I figured that they were merely banking on that. All movies had taglines back then, so I never really imagined it would have this much effect on people. It was a tagline that stuck. Up to this day, people who aren’t even from that generation—those who are way younger—still know it. I guess they’ve found a way to watch my version of ‘Tiyanak,’” the actress said.
Even her own child, actress Kaila Estrada, once dressed up like De Belen’s character for Halloween. Estrada posted on Instagram her photo with a doll that looked like the monster baby. “This was because my photo with the tiyanak resurfaced recently. Kaila rented the doll—I didn’t even know that a doll like that could be rented!—copied my look, and then took photos,” Kaila’s mom recalled.
“I actually enjoy making horror films, but I don’t enjoy watching them. It’s different when you know what’s happening behind the scenes. Also, I want to experience making the horror films of today. I know the process is very much different from how we did it back then—hindi na basta [it’s not just] monsters,” the actress told Super during a lull in her photo shoot for yet another horror movie, Chito Roño’s “Espantaho,” an official entry to the 50th Metro Manila Film Festival.
Possessed refrigerator
“Pridyider,” De Belen’s first horror movie and one that she made when she was only 15, is also a film that stuck. It’s an episode from the first installment of “Shake, Rattle & Roll” in 1984, and was directed by the late National Artist for Film Ishmael Bernal. The story is about a refrigerator possessed by an evil spirit. The film subtly explored themes of female sexuality, with De Belen’s character becoming the object of the refrigerator’s carnal intentions.
The old refrigerator lures attractive young women and kill them by repeatedly slamming its door. “For me, it was just a movie. I never really thought people will still remember it up to now. Sino ba ang magiisip na ‘yong pridyider kakain ng tao? [Who would think that a refrigerator could eat a person?]” De Belen said, laughing.
“It’s funny how people now have different interpretations to a lot of the things I did in the movie. In fact, I just followed my director’s instructions. He said, ‘Dito ka lang. Naiinitan ka! Sobrang mainit!’ [“Stay here! You’re feeling hot! It’s very hot!”] My motivation for standing beside the refrigerator was to cool down. Hearing what people thought of that actually surprised me. I found myself saying, ‘gano’n pala?’ [that’s how it is?]”
Through the years, De Belen said she would receive feedback from people about “Pridyider.” “Some would say it was a novelty at that time, since Direk Ishma was able to create a monster out of an ordinary kitchen appliance. Some said it was iconic, while others said it will never be forgotten,” she recalled.
Standout performances
These days, De Belen is called the “Queen of Horror-Drama” because of her standout performances, particularly in these two iconic horror films. Many say that, back in the days when CGI was still not invented, the images of this monster baby and refrigerator kept audiences sleepless for weeks. “As for me, I just enjoyed all the ‘Shake’ episodes I made. Each of them were different,” said De Belen.
She has been part of five “Shake Rattle & Roll” episodes. She even made the remake of “Pridyider” in 2012 with Andi Eigenmann and JM de Guzman.
De Belen’s second horror project was “Haunted House” (1985) with William Martinez and J.C. Bonnin. She also appeared in Roño’s “The Healing,” where she starred alongside Vilma Santos, as well as in Erik Matti’s “Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles.”
De Belen said she is proud of the roster of directors she has worked with when she was younger. “Their genius is now only a memory,” she said of Bernal, Gallaga, Lino Brocka, Maryo J. delos Reyes, Mel Chionglo, Mario O’Hara, and Orlando Nandres.
De Belen recalled the time she did a cameo in one of Gallaga’s episodes for “Shake” as a zombie. “May taga ako sa ulo,” she said of her character. “I had wanted to prank the people at home. That’s why I didn’t remove my makeup when we finished filming at 4:30 a. m. I was already at the door, about to ring the doorbell, when I realized my grandmother was already awake at that hour and she would be the one to open it for me. I told her, ‘Lola this is nothing, okay? This is just for work!’ Na-karma ako. I didn’t get to enjoy the moment.”
It was at this point in the interview when we asked De Belen to talk about “horror acting.” She claimed that it is not so different from acting in drama films. “The only lesson I can share is to not take your work home. You stop becoming your character the moment the director shouts ‘Cut!’. I guess it helped because I have no traumatic experience when it comes to doing horror. I also don’t see or feel ghosts like others do. For me, it’s just acting.”
