MANILA -- What happens when an obsessive person develops strong feelings for someone? He follows that someone constantly, no matter how strange and creepy it may look to others.

That is the story of “Stalkers,” about a young man with a dark and mysterious past who develops a deep infatuation with a seductive woman.

Harry (played by Wilbert Ross) has serious issues of sexual pervasion which often leads him to fantasize about being with women. His admiration for Apple (Rose Van Ginkel) turns into an obsession and he follows her secretly wherever she goes, inevitably becoming her stalker.

Director Easy Ferrer conceptualized and wrote the script for “Stalkers” originally as a dark comedy.

“Since 2019, I’ve always been pitching the material to producers,” Ferrer shared. “So it started out na hindi pa ganito ang genre ng series. Dark siya talaga. We developed it when Vivamax agreed to show the material.

“We decided to make it a sexy comedy-thriller and gave it a different flavor. Why not? It was really a relatively dark concept. Pwede siyang paglaruan in such a way that the characters will become endearing.

“I completed ‘Stalkers’ in 2019. I had this thinking na ano ba ang tumatakbo sa utak ng isang stalker? Gaanong kalalim ang nangyayari kapag may ganoong klaseng phenomenon sa isang tao?

“I started thinking about it. Dahil sa ginagawa niya, parang napapahamak siya slowly eventually. What if this person gets his own taste of medicine?”

When Ferrer was made to choose his lead star, he really wanted to work with Ginkel after watching her in “Kitty K7.”

“I really found Rose very good in ‘Kitty K7’ that’s why I wanted to get her for ‘Stalkers.’ Then non-negotiable si Rose. Si Wilbert, very reliable, so I no longer had questions about it. Wilbert is it.

“I was not surprised with both of them that’s why everything really turned out well with both my lead stars.

“The cast, I also chose them one by one. When it was completed, the end product turned out well.”

Working for the first time with Vivamax challenged Ferrer undoubtedly, when he had to deliver a sexy comedy flick.

“The roster of actors and actresses is different,” he noted. “Masarap silang ka-trabaho dahil pinag-aralan nila ang material. Even their vision and my vision, we were aligned.

“I must admit, ‘Stalkers’ is not easy for me. Hirap na hirap talaga ako. Viva has a branding that needs to be maintained, I was required of so many things for the series.”

For the entire experience of shooting the series, Ferrer was in tenterhooks. “My hands were shaking,” he said. “I knew nothing about heterosexual preference.

“I gathered the people I worked with and asked them a lot of questions. That got my knees shaking and gave me stress. Especially on the first day, I was crying on the set.

“Even my artists, they were helping me consistently. Even the cameramen, tinatanong ko. Would you watch this? Would you be aroused by this? Will this be good when it comes out?

“Up to the last day, hindi pa rin ako nadadalian. I was asking myself, ‘Paano ko ba ‘to malalampasan?’ Medyo mahirap for me. Gagawa pa kaya ako ng isa pa? Parang nabuhos ko na lahat dito. Kung ano alam ko in life and directing, binuhos ko na dito sa ‘Stalkers’.”

The longest scenes that Ferrer had to shoot were the sex scenes. “Aside from it being the requirement, I had to make it good. It’s the branding and I feel it was what I was being tested when this series comes out.”

He was shocked in a good way. “Na-shocked ako in fairness. Pero kahit paano, gumaan ang work ko because of my actors who were very committed.”

“Ang hirap to direct the sex scenes. It was out of my league. It’s an entirely different matter. I did love scenes before in my previous projects, pero pa-sweet lang. Rom-com lang kasi ang ginagawa ko," he added.

“This time, sa ‘Stalkers,’ na-extend na. Feeling ko ang layo ng narating ng sex scenes. I followed whatever the instructions lang. They were the showrunners. Sila ang nakaka-alam how the show should be.”

Ferrer believes there’s a stalker in everyone of us. “I presented different kinds of stalking. There is never in the series where a stalker was put in a bad light.

"There might be the opinion of other people that stalking is bad. I’m not on that side. I’m here to present the story of different kinds of stalking and different levels of stalking or methods of stalking.

“My goal was to tell the story of a person who’s obsessed with another person set in a black comedy setting, thriller way.”