Sigaw

I had to watch this movie 3 times in order to catch it beginning to end. Some parts of the movie were THAT slow. The eerie music came on loud enough to start to annoy me.

The abuse scenes were troubling to watch but I've seen worse. It was haunting though. I was kind of disappointed at the end. Even if it would have been corny if the curse didn't go away I don't think it would have been a bad way to end the movie though. There are just way too many movies with 'to be continued' type endings. I'd say the movie theatre & bathroom scene would have to be the scariest parts of the movie.

During the opening scenes the dark, decrepit apartment block provided plenty of claustrophobia and paranoia and set me at unease before the titles had even finished.

The story is a strong and very visual one, and at times does seem to borrow from Asian horror, a fact that Laranas disputes in the audio commentary, but it never feels wrong. The characters are quite identifiable, even from such a different culture, and the actors are surprisingly good. They have their moments though, and the beautiful Locsinplays a few moments awkwardly, while Gutierrez has a few lines where his dialogue feels wrong for his character. The other male leads Yllana and Blanco provide very convincing performances, and as for Calzado, well she has some truly terrifying moments.

Calzado and Yllana manage to give such a believable performance as the abused wife and abusing husband respectively. This is done with suggestion and intent, and no actual violence. It's the looks in their faces and their utterly convincing tone that captures this, and I suspect that many will find these scenes very uncomfortable without them actually having any violence. This shows the strength of the script and Director.

By far the creepiest moments are with the child . When the apartment door opens without warning it's enough to scare you, but when the child runs in and hides under the bed, and with a blood red face, I admit Laranas had me freaked out. This feeling is reinforced when it occurs again and there is no child, just the camera hinting at the movements of someone. An excellent method of building unease in the audience.

Laranas knows the tricks of the trade when it comes to horror, the scares, screams and tension building is done very well, and even without the child moments there are some very scary moments...The scenes in the cinema and the toilet cubicle are superbly filmed. There's great use of the camera throughout, and the understanding that less actually more and subtlety is a wonderful trait.

The cinematography and sound are very strong aspects of the movie, perhaps the strongest, and there are some superbly visualised and filmed scenes. The sound effects and score are very complimentary to the movie and provide for excellent tension building.

However all is not great, there is a short section of the film where the characters leave the confines of the buildings that they inhabit, both home and work, and this feels slightly out of place in the movie. Suddenly the world is opened up and it feels as though they could just leave and the tension is temporarily halted. As soon as they return to the confines of the apartment though, the tension returns and builds back.

The story builds to good climax, where you genuinely are unsure what's about to happen. Indeed I wasn't sure as the final scenes played out, and I was quite surprised at the ending.

Picture: 1.85:1 Unfortunately this is the failing of the DVD. The picture is extremely harsh in white balance, bright areas very over exposed and at times far too bright, with dark areas being very dark, but not overly. It gives a good feeling for most of the movie but there are some scenes where it's very distracting.

At first I thought this was down to the style of filming, and I found it was starting to annoy me more and more, however when I watched the trailers in the Extras afterwards I discovered that it wasn't the filming, it was the picture on the DVD. Since then I've read another review that says this very same thing. The picture on the DVD heavily let's the movie down, and that's indeed a shame.

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 \ 2.0 Subtitles: English The sound is one of the strongest features in this movie, with a good use made of the DD5.1 available to it. Effects happen around the scene, and it's not overly used so you're hearing sounds all around you, but it is used enough to provide depth to the scenes.

The score stands out and is a major contribution to the tension of the movie. It's very haunting and keeps itself in the background, slowly building and gently tapping at your shoulder. During key scenes it provides the weight to let you know the seriousness of the moment, but it never overpowers the movie.

Extras: Commentary, Behind the Scenes Featurette and Trailers Laranas is perhaps being one of the most mellow Directors I've ever heard. However he provides some good insight to the movie, the actors and some of the problems they faced. I actually found I enjoyed watching the movie a second time with his commentary, and it felt like it added more to the experience.

The Featurette provides direct footage of some of the scenes being filmed, but with no commentary it's not very interesting.

I was slightly disappointed that the trailers didn't carry subtitles. There are a number of trailers for other movies alongside all the trailers for Sigaw, and it is here that you see the picture was not filmed with this harsh contrast.

Overall This is a simple, and very effective story made so by excellent film making techniques in editing, cinematography and sound. This combination is what makes the movie effective in tension building and scare delivery. It's almost a traditional horror, a scary movie without the slasher and special effects that have been employed in the modern horror film.

The acting is strong, and provided a surprise for me in the quality of talent available to the Philippines. There are some weak moments, but nothing that distracts from the story which is kept going at an ever increasing pace.

This is a scary movie with some excellently filmed moments and superb soundtrack that will keep you tense and jumpy. A very enjoyable horror showing subtlety over slashing.

The Echo (Sigaw) has teeth and it sinks deep through your bones. Predictable in some scenes but very unique in storytelling and the "scare" factor. Cinematography is excellent as well as music/sound and editing. This film is so scary that it will frighten you even after you've seen it. Very eerie and very claustrophobic. It would be cool if Hollywood will pick this movie and do a remake...I just wish they won't mess the story up too much. The movie's simplicity is what makes it scary. The "realness" is what makes it unique in some sense. It's very frightening because of the way the director made the film effective even without any special effects. I think that what makes The Echo (Sigaw) a very scary film. Must watch!

but probably cry...

Truly i have seen plenty of Filipino horror films for the past decade (more noticeably the 90s era where most pinoy horror films where nothing more than laughed at shadows to it's former classic roots). But it's changed for the past few years, and this is one of them. Sigaw (trans title: THE SCREAM *or Hollywood title THE ECHO) sets around a man named Marvin who has bought a room (reffered as Unit) in a rundown apartment. Every night there has been shouting and loud banging of abuse from his neighbors. A Policman who suspects his wife having a lover hidden in the apartment enrages him. Soon the wife starts asking for help from him. Not till long that Marvin is caught up in all the mess that has been created. It will not only destroy his residential stay, but probably his life. Sigaw more than ranks up with one of Asia's most noted horror films. Though as usual, more dramatic than scary. It puts a mood of sadness through out the film. Making you actually care about what the characters have to go through. With it's moody plot, addicting characters, great scenery shots (trust me, if you've seen half of the filipino movies i have, this pretty much has the shooting budget of Star Wars), and so much atmosphere with a lot of nicely edited composed score. This is one film you should not pass up. Though it will be hard to find a copy of the DVD in the Us (though probably near you at a local Filipino Store, or at the Regal site). But already has been given a US Remake to boot. Surely this film will at least reach cult status.

This is another I watched per reviews here on IMDb. I believe this is the first time I've watched a movie from the Philippines and I am quite impressed, overall.

The acting in this movie seems very well done, but I will put in my standard disclaimer about movies spoken in a foreign tongue to me: I do not speak Tagalog so therefore, my critique of the acting in this movie is based on body language and facial expressions. Everybody did a fine job, even the Ella Guervara, the actress who portrayed the little girl, Lara. As far as actors, I'd say the star was Iza Calzado. I don't imagine it's too easy getting in the mindset of an abused woman.

The atmosphere in this movie is incredible. The tension, drama, suspense, and action were all set up quite well. The music was on cue with the mood the director tried to set up for the audience. The lighting was just right for each scene. Nothing seemed out of place in this movie.

When I watched this movie, I felt upset and angry. There were a few scare moments but mostly because of "noise tactics", which I consider the low-blow of horror cinema. A couple of scenes did frighten me though, such as when Bert was about to beat Anna over the head with a police baton. In all though, this movie made me upset at the ineptitude of my fellow man. It is very disappointing for me to see that we, as a species, can 1) hurt each other so much and 2) allow others to hurt ourselves or the people we know.

If you happen to see this title at your local Blockbuster or, more likely, at your mom-and-pop video store (do they have such stores in smaller cities, or is it just in major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco?), go ahead and pick it up. You might want to logoff of your game of World of Warcraft and pay close attention. This movie was well done and deserves the attention.