Balaraw: Blood Island

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What happens

Balaraw: Blood Island is a Filipino horror mystery series with a love story at its side and a missing mother at its heart. Many people have tried to find a certain island. None of them have ever come back.

Sabina Tejeros is about to try anyway. Her mother, Rebecca, has disappeared, and Sabina sets out for the mysterious island of Balaraw hoping to bring her home. Picture this: every story you have heard about a place ends with the words never found, and you are packing a bag to go there.

She does not go alone. Her girlfriend, Bulak, joins her on the trip, which means the search for Rebecca is also a test of what the two women mean to each other when the world around them stops making sense. The voyage turns bloody, with an exploitative ship captain in the way and something far more sinister waiting beyond him.

The series draws on Filipino folklore and island legend to build its dread, and it keeps the emotional stakes personal: a daughter searching for her mother, and a couple holding on to each other in a place that seems to swallow people whole. The question the official trailer leaves hanging is a chilling one. As Sabina searches for her mother, will she be the next to vanish?

CONTENT DETAILS

Native Title: Balaraw
Original Title: Balaraw
Genres: Drama Horror Mystery Supernatural Thriller
Themes: GL
Country: Philippines
Language: Filipino
Networks: Netflix
Aired Start: 29 Oct 2026
Release Year: 2026

MAIN CAST & CHARACTERS

Janine Gutierrez

Janine Gutierrez

Charlie Dizon

Before You Watch

Platform: a Netflix original series.
Premiere: 29 October 2026, worldwide.
Direction: Rae Red directs.
Language: Filipino.

Reviewed by Renkaze

Horror first, love beside it

Balaraw is not a romance with a spooky backdrop. It is a horror mystery with a queer couple at its centre, and that balance is what makes it interesting for GL fans. The relationship is not the puzzle to be solved. It is the thing the characters carry into the dark with them.

Sabina and Bulak are already together when the story begins, which skips the will-they-won't-they stage entirely. That is a choice I always appreciate in genre stories, because it lets the couple be a team from the first scene, and the fear comes from outside the relationship. Charlie Dizon has described Bulak as her first queer character, and Janine Gutierrez has spoken about the mother and daughter story as the emotional core.

A reunion behind the camera

Director Rae Red reunites with Gutierrez here after their earlier film Babae at Baril, and the team behind that film is also behind this one. That is a meaningful pairing for a project that blends genre thrills with a personal story. A lead and a director who already know each other's rhythms are a comforting thing to bring onto a haunted island.

The title is worth a moment too. In Filipino, a balaraw is a kind of dagger, so the island's name already sounds like a warning. Naming a place after a blade is a very efficient piece of foreshadowing. Pair that with the English subtitle, Blood Island, and the series has told you its genre twice before a single wave has hit the boat.

Same day in Manila and everywhere else

Netflix releases the series worldwide on 29 October 2026, which puts a Filipino GL storyline in front of an international audience on the same day as its home release. For GL fans outside the Philippines, that means no waiting for a regional window. Agot Isidro plays Rebecca, and Ronnie Lazaro and Nonie Buencamino round out the cast.

Balaraw has not premiered yet as I write, so this review is built on the trailer, the official synopsis and what Netflix and the cast have announced. The score waits until I have made it back from the island myself.

If you want your sapphic stories with salt water, folklore and a lot of goosebumps, this is the one for Halloween week. Keep the lights on, and keep someone you trust on the sofa next to you.

OFFICIAL TRAILER

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Who plays Sabina?

Janine Gutierrez plays Sabina Tejeros.

Who plays Bulak?

Charlie Dizon plays Bulak, Sabina's girlfriend. It is her first queer role.

Who plays Sabina's mother?

Agot Isidro plays Rebecca.

Who else is in the cast?

Ronnie Lazaro and Nonie Buencamino are part of the main cast.

Where was the official trailer released?

On the Netflix Philippines YouTube channel.

Written and verified by Renkaze · Last updated 25 October 2026

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