YAM Laranas is on a roll.

In a matter of weeks, three of the Davao-born filmmaker?s major projects have seen release.

The most highly anticipated of these was ?The Echo,? widely touted as the first Hollywood remake of a Filipino film by a Filipino director, which opened last Oct. 7 in local cinemas.

A remake of Laranas? own ?Sigaw? (2004), ?The Echo? has reaped critical praise abroad, despite the fact that it failed to get a US theatrical release and went straight to DVD.

While most remakes of Asian horror films (?Shutter,? ?The Eye?) fall flat or at least fail to live up to the original despite A-list stars and a Hollywood budget, ?The Echo? manages to retain the original?s slow-burning creepiness, thanks largely to Laranas? distinctive mise en scene, a strong cast (including Iza Calzado reprising her role in the original), and a light touch with special effects and sound design.

A few weeks prior to this, the director also chalked up another first when ?Asia?s Titanic? premiered locally on the National Geographic Channel. Laranas? full-length documentary on the real-life horrors of the 1987 Doña Paz maritime disaster was the first National Geographic feature to be produced entirely in the Philippines by a Filipino production crew.

And?just in time for Halloween?Laranas will be premiering ?Patient X? on Oct. 28. The buzz around Laranas? take on the aswang mythos has been intense?not surprising since it?s a major collaboration between GMA and Viva Films?but also because of the inadvertent publicity drawn by the film?s leads, Richard Gutierrez and Cristine Reyes, during the recent floods.

Laranas? success is all the more remarkable given the creative rut that much of local cinema seems to be in. Despite the recent explosion of independent filmmaking, many local auteurs seem bent on either alienating audiences with self-indulgent navel-gazing or mining themes long played out by Brocka and Bernal, or cynically pandering to festival programmers? preconceptions of what Filipino films should be?when they?re not doing hack work for the majors.

No wonder Laranas? films seem like a breath of fresh air. They hew close to the values of old-time movie-making: story, character, and images that burn themselves into your brain.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Laranas was in Subic shooting his next project when SIM caught up with him:

SIM: You were born in Davao. Did you grow up there, and if so, did it influence your desire to make movies, and your choice of themes, visual sensibility, and other aesthetic values?

Laranas: Yes. I was born and raised in Davao. I went to Kindergarten until Grade Five in Tagum, Davao del Norte and we moved to Davao City when I was in the 6th grade.

Going to the cinema was always a treat for our family. It was sort of our weekend thing. My parents loved the movies. They watched anything?any genre. I actually grew up watching Tagalog movies: Fernando Poe Jr., Ramon Revilla, Lito Lapid, Dolphy, Chiquito, etc. And of course there were always the Bruce Lee and other martial arts movies. But as a family, we watched anything. ?Whatever is good,? my father would always say.

I was always curious about how movies were made. My brothers and I would ?scavenge? the trash bin near the cinemas for bits of celluloid film that had been thrown away. It amazed me! One picture after another. Color or black and white: I thought it was magical.

I grew up with blackouts, with us having only two hours of electricity in a 24-hour period. And that went on for years. We didn?t have television so we improvised. In the basement of our house, we created a makeshift mini-theater with one white blanket and a candle. We had a shadow play show! Improvised! It evolved into the ViewMaster and eventually into the Mini-Movie. I was hooked.

Those blackouts were my greatest influence in terms of lighting design. It was so fascinating then to see the warm light and then the shadows on my friends? faces. I never thought then that that was a very ?Rembrandt? experience.

SIM: Can you remember the precise moment when you realized that making films was what you wanted to do with your life?

Laranas: There was no epiphany?in fact it was sort of an accident. I left Davao City to pursue acting for theater, television, even motion pictures. I wanted to be an actor! I auditioned for a scholarship in the Actors Workshop Foundation. I went, got a callback and went to a second audition. I failed. I can still remember how scared I was answering questions from Johnny Delgado. Wow! That was intense.

So, I failed. Went home very sad. On the jeepney ride home I bought a newspaper and saw an ad for the Mowelfund Film Institute.

SIM: How did you go about becoming a filmmaker?

Laranas: I joined Mowelfund for its Basic Cinema Workshop. After that I was lucky enough to be selected to take part in advance courses in Cinematography, Editing, Scriptwriting, Design, Music, etc. What attracted me the most was cinematography. In Mowelfund, I focused on lighting design and camera work. I never wanted to be a director. I wanted to become a director of photography.

SIM: Was it particularly difficult to break into film in the pre-digital video era?

Laranas: Oh yes. Technology was a great obstacle then. The only way to make your films was to shoot on film. If you shot in video then, it was very inferior in terms of quality. Now, it?s totally different. Technology has ignited a revolution in cinema. It has become the catalyst for change?the equalizer of mainstream and ?indies?.

SIM: You seem to be able to go beyond the current ?indie-mainstream? divide in Philippine cinema, where ?indie? = artistic integrity and ?mainstream? = commercial sellout. What?s your take on the whole issue?

Laranas: I always believe that films are made for an audience. I make movies for an audience. The more people see my films, the more fulfilled I am. I think the word ?indie? is so abused now. People assume that if it?s indie, it?s an art film and not for a bigger audience. Some producers even call their soft porn ?indie.? If it?s made using digital technology it doesn?t mean it?s indie or it?s artistic!

This is the downside of this technological revolution. We are able to see a new crop of visionaries, but at the same time we also see a vision of crap. A lot of people think that when you shoot and edit you can make a movie and become a filmmaker. This is dangerous.

SIM: Some of your most successful efforts were films that you directed from your own screenplays. How important is writing to you?

Laranas: The story is everything. Writing my own screenplays makes it a lot easier for me to visualize the story.

SIM: What are the roots of your interest in horror? For instance, how did ?Sigaw? come about?

Laranas: When I was a kid my parents brought me to a screening of ?The Amityville Horror.? My dad loves the H.P. Lovecraft books. I had a collection of comic books and I was fascinated with Batman.

?Sigaw? was inspired by a real murder that happened in our building. From the 24th floor, I took the elevator for a very early call in a shoot. I got in the elevator and there was blood everywhere. It was creepy and very dramatic!

SIM: Most reviewers thought ?Sigaw? was a natural for a Hollywood remake, and sure enough. How did that come about?

Laranas: I promoted ?Sigaw? in the blogs?back in 2004 when blogging wasn?t that big yet. I got in touch with several entertainment writers and reviewers in the US and Europe and sent them screeners thru FedEx using my own money.

Next thing I knew, I got an email from Roy Lee (producer of ?The Ring? and ?The Grudge?) inquiring about the film. The rest is history. I thought that the possibility of that happening to me was like going on a personal trip to the planet Mars.

SIM: Most Hollywood remakes of Asian horror films end up disappointing. Something seems to have been lost in the translation. Was this on your mind when re-making ?The Echo??

Laranas: It was a very conscious objective on my part to make sure that I removed any cliches and similarities to any Asian horror film in our screenplay. I wanted to contribute something to the genre and that was fear and paranoia and taking them home with you even after the film is over.

SIM: Judging from the positive reviews of ?The Echo,? you seem to have dodged the bullet. How did you do it?

Laranas: If you bring something new to the table, the audience will appreciate it. You don?t want to make films by ripping off other films. Horror film fanatics are a highly-sophisticated bunch. When you see ?The Echo,? you will see scares and story points that have never been done before.

SIM: What was the inspiration for ?Patient X?? How did the project develop?

Laranas: ?Patient X? was inspired by the yeti, the Loch Ness monster, the notorious Abu Ghraib prison photos, etc. The idea was, what if you actually capture a real vampire, or an aswang?

I wanted to write a story for Richard Gutierrez so we could reunite after ?Sigaw.? I was in Toronto doing post-production for ?The Echo? then.

SIM: Are you worried about being typecast as a ?horror? director?

Laranas: I?m not worried, but I also don?t want to be typecast as doing only horror films. Spielberg made ?Jaws,? Kubrick did ?The Shining,? Sam Raimi was famous for his ?Evil Dead? series.

SIM: At the same time, you also did a documentary on the real life horror of the Doña Paz sinking. How did that happen?

Laranas: Because I don?t want to be typecast as a horror director? Ha ha! The Doña Paz documentary, ?Asia?s Titanic,? was a grant from the National Geographic Channel.

SIM: Where would you like to see Philippine cinema going in the next five, 10 years?

Laranas: I?m optimistic that we will have a cinema that is as strong as Korea?s or Japan?s, with its own identity and a plethora of talents.

SIM: Any future projects in development? What is your ?dream? project?

Laranas: I need P100 million. I want to make the movie ?Bonifacio: The Tragedy of the Revolution.? This is an epic story worth telling. Knock, knock sponsors! ?