leiram45

A college student goes back home to attend his twin's funeral. There he uncovers secrets his family have been harboring. I saw this film on lists of best Pinoy horror films a few years ago, and after watching this film, I don't know how they thought this one was good. It had positive qualities, sure, but all those positives got piled on, stomped on by an unbelievable twist no amount of suspension of disbelief can overcome.

This movie has positives. The 80s setting was a nice touch and most of all, the acting was great. John Arcilla and Sharon Cuneta were amazing here. It's such a shame that this movie failed them. The filmmakers seemed hell-bent on squeezing twists/elements from other horror films into this one-no matter the cost. No actor can save a film from a thinking like that.

I could take the slow pacing, I could take the ending feeling rushed and not focusing enough on the "solution", I could take some questionable information, and I could take the film not being scary overall. I could have even given the film a passing 5 rating. But, I couldn't take that twist. It was brains thrown out the window. It was one of the worst, if not the worst, WHAT-THE-HECK moment I've encountered in any form of fiction so far. It was so unbelievable and, more so, impossible. I wanted to shut the film off. If I didn't know it was about to end, I would have. Every good thing after that reveal turned to dust.

If you don't want to be frustrated, stay away from this film and go watch something else. There are Filipino horror films that are at least solid fives, but not this. The actors in this film deserve much better. I cannot comprehend what the filmmakers were thinking on this one.

An older couple who recently had their first child buys a coffee table but not without much argument. The husband pushes through with buying the table he likes, a decision which will change their lives in ways they couldn't have imagined. This film had its moments, disturbing in fact, but the film didn't come through as being well-thought-of. Another big issue was the story being dragged to reach 1 hour and 31 minutes of runtime. It would have been effective as a short.

The positives. The acting was, overall, good. The plot was easy to follow. The filmmakers clearly wanted the viewers to feel uneasy and they were successful in that.

The negatives. Aside from the plot being dragged to a full-length film, there were some questionable behavior here. A character had so much patience in spite of something happening. Another character was unbelievable to be that way and I don't see an objective reason story-wise to have a character like that. I felt like the filmmakers just had a brainstorming session about all the things they find to be disturbing and put it all in a single movie, and I don't think that's the right way to go.

Also, the characters are not likable. The wife, though she makes more sense, wants to have her way all the time. The husband, I'm sorry, was stupid in a lot of things. Another character, I felt was made just for shock value. There's another two characters who were more likable than the leads in my opinion.

Another thing is the genre. Why does it have comedy as one? There's nothing funny in this film. It's not a black comedy either. That's perplexing.

This film could have been a punch if it was a short movie instead and if there were no subplots that didn't add value to the main story. This is not the first film that has "to disturb" as it's first priority, but this one felt like it was made just for that. It was also draggy and I wanted to fast forward to the end. Watch if you want but there are better, more thought-out, disturbing movies than this one.