The Road (stylized as The Яoad) is a 2011 Filipino horror anthology film written, cinematographed and directed by Yam Laranas.
Divided into three stories, the film stars Carmina Villarroel, Marvin Agustin, TJ Trinidad, Rhian Ramos, Barbie Forteza, Alden Richards, Lexi Fernandez, Louise delos Reyes, Derrick Monasterio, Ynna Asistio, and Renz Valerio.
Luis Medina is a successful policeman who has been recently awarded for his skill in investigations, despite his track record of being reckless and failing to follow protocol.
After his award ceremony, the police chief is approached by a woman asking for new information about her daughters Joy and Lara, who went missing twelve years ago.
Luis sets out for his investigation, despite his colleague Greg advising him against giving her false hope.
Brian tries to make a U-turn, but accidentally drives into a fence blocking a dirt road.
Panicking, Brian tries to get them off the road but discover that they are stuck in an endless loop, passing by the same tree again and again.
Ella manages to call her father and beg for help, but the red car suddenly bursts into flames, causing the three to leave the crash site.
They manage to get back into their car and attempt to drive away, but a ghost behind the wheel scares Janine.
When Luis opens the backseat door, he sees a skeleton wearing a heart shaped locket.
As they drive, they pass by a teenage boy walking along the road and a few feet away from him, their car overheats.
As Lara tries to crawl away, The boy knocks her out and wraps a plastic bag around her head and ties a belt around her neck and her hands.
It is revealed that the boy is not allowed to come out of the house and his abusive mother Carmela tells Martha to come back tomorrow morning.
The reason behind Carmela's bitterness is because the family is struggling financially and her husband refuses to ask money from his congregation.
Wanting him to experience some fun, Martha goes inside with a bucket of soap and water to blow bubbles.
When he comes downstairs, his father tells him that Carmela left them and starts to throw up due to drunkenness.
When Allan finds a room bound with a new padlock, Luis orders him to beat the door down.
The film ends with Luis as a young boy, finally able to go outside of his house and be free from his mother.
As of May 13, 2012, the film opened with an estimated $61,200 in North America, ranking 27th in the box office, along with $849,565 in the Philippines, for a worldwide total of $910,765.
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "A powerfully atmospheric blend of ghostly encounters, horrific situations and missing-persons mysteries from the Philippine director Yam Laranas.
"[25] Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times remarked, "The film's three-pronged narrative does a fair job of laying a spooky groundwork for the revelatory emotional sadism that lies behind most acts of evil; it just takes a bit of clunky exposition to get there.
Musetto of the New York Post wrote, "(Laranas) delivers a maximum of suspense and horror, working wonders with a small budget.
Club gave a positive review, saying "The Road spends most of its time going in circles, working and reworking a small set of potent images.
There’s a fine line between simple and crude, and The Road weaves back and forth over it like a rattletrap with a sudden flat, but Laranas makes a virtue of his limited means, steering clear of distraction and into the heart of darkness.
he stated, "But The Road, like many horror films today, is insistent on providing some sort of twist, regardless of how little sense it actually makes.
Laranas’ meticulously composed frames make great use of the interplay between light and shadow, setting up an eerie atmosphere that permeates every second of the film.[...].