A new summer barkada series is coming to Viva One. Titled Sem Break, the six-episode horror romp follows a group of friends on a road trip gone wrong.
Director Roni S. Benaid, the creative mind behind last year’s horror hits Mary Cherry Chua and Marita, is back to terrify the viewers again. This time, he puts a fresh spin on a classic local belief: evil spirits latching onto unsuspecting visitors.
“We’ve all probably heard the saying, ‘Be careful, so nothing follows you home.’ It’s about those malevolent entities in remote places that supposedly attach themselves to visitors,” Benaid explains in the vernacular. “I found it fascinating, and thankfully Viva did too. So, in this series, we’ll see how this barkada experiences it firsthand.”
To make things extra exciting for modern audiences, Benaid casts Viva’s hottest new love team, Jerome Ponce and Krissha Viaje, as the leads, Arlo and Mich. They’re joined by their friends Cora (Aubrey Caraan), Jessie (Hyacinth Callado), and Pipo (Gab Lagman). Keann Johnson rounds out the group as Timmy.
The story unfolds with the friends embarking on what seems like a perfect getaway to a far-flung province. But their carefree vacation takes a dark turn when they ignore warnings about a mysterious lighthouse near their resort.
Fueled by youthful curiosity and a hint of recklessness, Mich, Arlo, Cora, and Timmy sneak into the creepy lighthouse late at night, unleashing a terrifying chain of events they can’t control.
As they head back to Manila, an unsettling feeling takes hold. They have no idea they might have brought something sinister back with them.
Can the “Univerkada,” the name of the group of these young actors, escape the clutches of an unseen entity that now haunts them? Witness their fight for survival in Sem Break, premiering May 10, with new episodes dropping exclusively on Viva One every Friday.