Videos of broadcast journalists getting spooked while doing their live coverage for the Halloween season are gaining traction on social media as the country observes Undas.
Ajay Lagrimas, a councilor and community rights and welfare head at the UP Diliman University Student Council, shared his amusement over ABS-CBN reporter Jervis Manahan‘s feature for DZMM Teleradyo’s “Sakto.”
Manahan on Friday went to Baliuag, Bulacan to feature its 17-year-old “Halloween Ghost Town” which has two horror houses to scare visitors for the season.
In his TV feature, Manahan entered one of the horror houses where there were actors dressed up as spooky characters, complete with props.
The reporter was giving viewers a tour of the place when he was spooked by an actor dressed as a freaky white lady who suddenly came near him.
Manahan let out a surprised scream, which amused Filipinos like Lagrimas. The latter shared a clip of it on Twitter, where it has earned 428,300 views, 38,000 likes and over 5,560 retweets so far.
“News reporters and aggressive ghosts are forever funny,” Lagrimas tweeted on Friday.
Manahan in his coverage admitted to “Sakto” host Amy Perez that he is easily spooked, adding that he was “nervous” when he first saw the horror house actors upon their news team’s arrival.
“Very memorable talaga ‘tong pagbabalik natin sa ‘Sakto,'” he added.
Tita Krissy Achino, an impersonator of Kris Aquino, tagged Manahan and wrote, “OMG!!!” accompanying the tweet with laughing-with-tears emoji.
“Next time kasi samahan mo ko, Tita Krissy, hahaha,” the journalist said in the replies thread.
“Nakooo, baka ‘pag sumigaw ako ng AAAUUUGGGHHH, sila pa ‘yung lumayo!” Tita Krissy wrote.
Manahan also recently shared a video of him relaying his personal horror stories to “Creepsilog” podcast when one of its hosts noticed something behind the journalist.
“So I got invited to share some of my personal horror stories over an online streamyard session last Sunday,” he said on October 27.
“It was a fun discussion until during post-prod, @theglentot noticed something outside our window. There was no one there that time. Did you see it?” Manahan added.
Meanwhile, another coverage that gained traction was a 2018 report of News5 correspondent Gem Avaceña who also visited a horror house in Cebu City and was spooked by its actors more than once.
“Good evening, mga ka LARUAN,” the Twitter user who recently shared the post wrote.
“Tawang-tawa parin ako sa video na ‘to kahit ilang taon na nakalipas,” another Filipino commented with a laughing-with-tears emoji.
The video was also shared by television host Luis Manzano in 2019.
“‘Yung nakalimutan mo horror house nga pala!” he wrote as a caption before.
A horror house is a form of live entertainment that simulates the experience of visiting haunted locations which usually feature actors dressed as ghosts, monsters and other famous Halloween characters.