Well, well, well, well, well...this was actually good.
I wonder what happened. Is it that for his umpteenth production Matti actually hunkered down and tried to tell a story properly? Or is it that he takes horror more seriously? Or that the genre doesn't short-circuit his instincts as much as sex does, so that he doesn't attempt anything ridiculous the way he does in his sex movies? Or is it that the writer Dwight Gaston ironed out the screenplay, made it proceed logically and coherently, and made each character actually come alive, with recognizably human and reasonable motivations (I remember Ekis with its moronic kidnap gang, and Prosti with its fantasyland whorehouse)?
Matti's style is chaste here--he doesn't go for the San Miguel beer commercial look, he doesn't splash the screen with colors. Mood is understated, and, ohmigod, the man uses silence to enhance the tension! He's actually learned something!
And the story actually develops! It comes to a point! And the point itself actually adds to the horror!
Would like to pause here and say I'm glad Roderick Paulate finally got a vehicle worthy enough (somewhat) to showcase his talent. He's always been an excellent actor, often appearing in less-than-excellent productions. If this was a hit, and if it helped Paulate's career, he only deserves it, and much more. Also, Yul seems to be developing, little by little, growing out of the probinsyano persona he developed in Batang West Side and Laman.
It's not perfect (SPOILERS). The waking up in the morning to find something nasty on one's bedsheets started to get old, about halfway in. You wonder: what on earth was the point of bringing Jaime Fabregas into the picture, and whether or not the mother blames him too (And if so, why? He has no control over her life)? You also wonder: what was the point of revealing she has a loveless marriage if nothing was going to come out of it? Worst of all, you think--is that it? They get a rap on their knuckles, and can leave peacefully forever (the ending, incidentally, reduces all the carefully built characters into mere spectators)? Sans one of them, of course, but after years of suffering, you'd think she'd maybe trap them in the house and give them the same spa-treatment-from-hell that she received as well. Ah well.
And small complaint: if that's what it's all about, shouldn't they not say that's what it might be all about? The subject pops up in conversation early in the picture, so the revelation becomes less of a surprise.
(END SPOILERS)
One of the better recent horror films (I'm actually using the term film! On a Matti picture!), Filipino and otherwise, to come out, and one of the better Filipino films I've seen recently (not that I've seen all that many...), and easily the best Matti I've ever seen (actually the first Matti I've actually liked).
Miracles, do happen, after all.
