Segunda mano

Being a fan of Pinoy horror films, this was the film that I was most looking forward to seeing in this year's Metro Manila Film Festival. The fact that it earned an A rating from the Film Ratings Board was the added push I needed to clear up some time from the busy holiday schedule to go see it. Maybe because of all of this heightened sense of expectation, I came out of the movie house today terribly disappointed.

I am getting ahead of myself. "Segunda Mano" is about a sad antique- shop owner Mabel (Kris Aquino) who lives with her mother (Ms. Helen Gamboa) in a spooky old house. Both are still disturbed by the death of younger sister Marie in a freak beach accident twenty years ago. She meets Ivan (Dingdong Dantes), a wealthy architect who seemed to have it all on the surface. Why then does a spirit inhabiting the bag and dress of Ivan's estranged wife Marielle (Angelica Panganiban) seem to stop at nothing to scare Mabel away, as people around them get killed?

Everything else in this movie is a horror cliché -- computer-generated spirits appearing on and off screen, séance scenes, comfort room stalls scenes, jumpy "scare" music, swimming pool scenes, cats, blackouts, all the way up to very last "shock" ending! The acting of the actors already telegraphed how everything was going to end, so there was practically no surprises. Kris looked very much older than Dingdong, and hardly his type based on his lifestyle, so they lack any sort of chemistry. Bangs Garcia was funny, but her ditzy character's "friendship" with Kris' morose character was so unlikely and felt forced and unrealistic. Trying to meld the stories of the unrelated deaths of Marie and Marielle was unnecessary and confusing.

The main and probably the only good thing I can say about "Segunda Mano" is their idea that ghosts can inhabit used merchandise we may buy from a second-hand store. That idea is actually horror genius! However unfortunately, the originality begins and ends there. After a truly good Pinoy horror film like "The Road" earlier this month, I expected this film to also be that level. Unfortunately, this was such a letdown. "Segunda Mano" is so chock-full of previously-done scare tactics such that this entire film also feels "second-hand".

SEGUNDA MANO is Joyce Bernal's first serious foray into the horror genre (there was an attempt in 2005, D'ANOTHERS, but in comedy form, supplied by lead star Vhong Navarro), after some 20-odd films (mostly a bevy of rom-coms and saccharine love stories), and comes up with serviceable chills and thrills. Kris Aquino stars as a mousy, frumpy antiques store owner living in the shadow of her sister's death by drowning. Her distraught mother (Helen Gamboa, underplaying) cannot move on, and Kris has devoted her life to taking care of the old lady and the antiques store. Thrown into this hapless equation is a charming stranger (Dingdong Dantes), who is supposedly reeling from the "disappearance" of his wife (Angelica Panganiban) some years ago... He has a petulant kid (Sofia Millares) who doesn't like Kris. As Kris accepts the engagement ring from Dingdong, a ghostly presence begins revealing itself to her... does this ghost mean harm? Or does this ghost have a message from beyond the grave, for Kris? From a story by Joel Mercado, Bernal draws sedate performances from Aquino and Gamboa, and a properly sinister portrayal from the unbalanced Dantes. For a while, I was reminded of the Rory Quintos-crafted thriller, SA AKING MGA KAMAY (1996), where Aga Muhlach portrayed a man who has a deep-seated hatred and aversion to women... Dantes' role is much the same, and where his brooding look rendered his performances hammy in films like ETERNITY (2006), RESIKLO (2007), and YOU TO ME ARE EVERYTHING (2010), it serves him well here -- he won the MMFF Best Actor award (with much controversy, owing to Kris' overzealous public lobbying). Panganiban, as the mystery ghost, scores, and Bangs Garcia as the bosom buddy of Aquino, with her rapid-fire wisecracks and physical comedy, almost steals the film from Aquino. The premise, earthly possessions of murdered people falling into the hands of innocent people, has been done already (MATAKOT KA SA KARMA, WHITE LADY, etc.) but Bernal manages to add some human dimension to what would otherwise be a screamfest full of clichés. The recrimination-and-forgiveness scenes between Aquino and Gamboa gives goosebumps as much as the ghostly attacks. Aquino's thespic talents have improved slightly from her massacre movies of yore and last year's DALAW, and you can bet your grandmother's peineta she will have a horror film for December 2012 yet again. In a nutshell, SEGUNDA MANO fares better than most films of its ilk.