(Apparently they weren't exactly faking their panic during the fiery climax, either!) The haunting music score, fetid village atmosphere, and striking photography involving the nearby beachscapes and desert result in a wholly unique and fascinating spectacle impossible to describe. (Try eating a burger while you're watching it.) There's only one major gore set piece in the film, but it's a real doozy and kicks off the gripping final act of the film which really puts the two female leads through their paces. It's far too surreal and unpredictable for that, which should be obvious from the opening ten minutes which should have any PETA members howling at the screen.

Though it's over two hours long, Silip is certainly never boring and can't really be classified as a straight-up sex film. Pretty soon everyone's lusts are running way out of control, resulting in violent and protracted deaths, incest, and some horrific, misguided village justice. Meanwhile her more devout sister, Tonya (Lopez), teaches church lessons to the kids and eases her raging libido but rubbing salt in her crotch. Simon spends his spare time sleeping with Maria (Manibog), but he's also lusted after by hot-to-trot Seldda (Emmanuelle), who's just come home from the city with an uncouth American boyfriend in tow. In a primitive and conservative salt-making community called Ilongo, a bunch of kids are so distraught over the butchering of their beloved buffalo by town stud Simon (Joseph) that a young girl is induced into her first period. But folks, you've never come across anything like this. As a result, filmmakers suddenly realized they could churn out whatever extreme visions their hearts desired, resulting in more widely screened films like Snake Sisters and Scorpio Nights. Former Miss Philippines Maria Isabel Lopez was making a name for herself in the '80s thanks to an well-timed erotic acting career during the country's relaxing censorship under the control of Imelda Marcos, who used proceeds from the more expensive 'hot' screenings to fund the country's cultural programs.

No, seriously though the packaging likens this to Japanese pink films, a closer description might be an acid-fueled Alejandro Jodorowsky teen angst drama with lots of graphic sex and violence. Whoa! Just when you thought you'd seen it all, along comes the Philippines-created Silip (shown far too rarely overseas as Daughters of Eve), one of the strangest, sweatiest, sleaziest films you'll ever see. Starring Maria Isabel Lopez, Sarsi Emmanuelle, Mark Joseph, Myra Manibog

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