The Road

This film by Yam Laranas ("The Echo") is divided into three segments. The first story concerns three young teenagers who drive down a desolate road at night, not knowing that it is haunted. This is a very cool, lengthy sequence with some nasty looking ghouls. The atmosphere is dense and the scare tactics are nicely crafted. The next two stories are flashbacks that show the historical acts of violence that are connected to the hauntings. The style here feels like a modern French horror film. It's very professional, with great photography, very eerie scoring, and solid performances. No humor or stupid one-liners to be found here. The deliberate pacing and gloomy mood will likely wear viewers down, which is a trait that I find to be a very positive thing. I strongly recommend this.

On a side note, I find it somewhat annoying that this film has such a low IMDb rating and such negative reviews. In a day and age where crap like "The House of the Devil" (2009) and "Insidious" (2010) are praised and hyped as new genre classics, I guess I shouldn't be surprised when a genuinely strong horror film like "The Road" (2011) is derided and criticized for being "too slow." Perhaps a few dozen cheap jump scares or some graphic violence would have sufficed to keep our attention deficient audiences awake. For goodness sakes, "Rob Zombie's Halloween" is currently rated higher than "The Road."

Yeah . . . okay.

I am not a gore hound kind of fan. I like it with real stories and unique ideas. The Road is very satisfying and I highly recommend it if you like the slow burn and creepy movies. This is my first to see movie where genre is somewhat crossing-over from horror to thriller to suspense to drama. I wished I've seen this in the big screen though.

When suddenly you think the story is predictable, the director brings you to unexpected "turns" and "detours". It's amazing how some story points and questions are answered by each chapter of the movie. It's cleverly done. I had to read through the subtitles though. But that is worth the eye strain because you will enjoy the film a lot.

An off-beat and gripping Filipino ghost tale.

It is essentially a sort of Pinoy Norman Bates story told in retrospective spanning two decades, with heavy amount of supernatural and sufficiently creepy elements thrown in for a good reason.

The yarn is simply structured and easy to follow. The chain of events revolving around the stark consequences of abused childhood experience is pretty dark and disturbing. Overall, in my opinion, the film has balanced mix of mystery, horror, drama ... and comedy.

Comedy? Well, I must be kidding, but I count one particular instance, which may be regarded, to certain extent, as a kind of comic relief in the midst of mostly depressive storyline: a redundant exposure of excessive puke masses ejected on the floor wasn't a fun part unless accompanied by the mother's self-mocking chant. Yum!

The direction perhaps is too heavy-handed at times with superfluous horrific clichés methodically stuck on one another, and the conclusion is somewhat rushed and improbable. But hey, the horror genre is rarely and less than anything else associated with scientifically correct, 100% logical, polished, visually stunning and accomplished piece of art.

Not bad at all.

THE ROAD was somewhat great in a mediocre way.

The story was beyond compelling and interesting. Critics says that the movie is scary but I disagree. The movie wasn't scary, it was just creepy and mind-disturbing.

The 3 parts of the movie, which is in backwards chronology, will keep you up in your seat. But to enjoy this movie, you have to be a keen observer about the details of the story.

Some says that the movie was a big plot hole, but it's not.

If you're filipino like me, you would relate to the story and not say that it's a plot hole. You just need to understand the movie more. There was no plot hole. Every question of the movie was answered in the end.

It was scary though, for filipinos like me, because mostly everyday, these things happen to us (people get lost, get killed, they turn to ghost and stuff) because in Philippines, we do believe in this stuff and there are big chances for these things to happen to us because Philippines is one big ball of mischief and horror. the script and the acting were both mediocre and a little bit lousy,

Overall, the movie was great, the story was well build, the cinematography was beyond amazing and the movie itself was in a powerful premise which was powerful enough to compel foreign viewers.

I give this movie a decent 7 out of 10

"The Road" starts off very strong. The first segment scared the hell out of me, something that almost rarely happens to me. Sure, the film doesn't have a high budget, and it probably would have benefited if they could manage to pull off the effects they were trying to achieve, but the small budget is sufficient enough. However, after the first segment, the film gets noticeably less exciting as we're given more backstory and information to solve the whole mystery surrounding the story. It would have helped if they tighten up the pace a bit, keep things going rather than slow everything down. Still, there is a satisfying payoff by the end as everything falls into place as well as unexpected emotional pathos rarely seen in horror films. Overall, the film reminds me of a Tarantino horror film. It's ambitious and may be a bit too convoluted for its own good, but it's above-average horror.