U-Turn

When I stumbled upon this 2020 Filipino horror movie on Netflix, I had never heard about it, and given my fascination with both horror movies and Asian cinema, then of course I opted to give director Roderick Cabrido's movie a fair chance.

While I did manage to sit through the 98 minutes that the movie ran for, I have to say that I was only mildly entertained by the narrative. Writer Cenon Palomares didn't exactly deliver a particularly riveting narrative or script for director Roderick Cabrido to bring to the screen. It was, in fact, a rather boring story that actually made very little sense.

And even the character gallery in the movie was somewhat boring as well, and that didn't exactly help to lift up an otherwise stale and bland storyline and script.

The acting performances in the movie were fair enough. I wasn't familiar with the cast, aside from Martin Del Rosario.

For a scary movie then "U-Turn" wasn't particuarly effective, as there was nothing scary in it. That, or perhaps I am just jaded from about 40 years of watching horror movies.

I have to say that there simply is zero replay value to "U-Turn", provided you get through it the first time around, that is.

My rating of "U-Turn" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

This Filipino film is centred on Donna, an investigative journalist wanting to report on more interesting stories. To this end she is willing to photograph accident victims, even moving bodies for a better shot. This particular incident took place on a stretch of closed road where somebody had moved warning barriers. Soon afterwards others who U-turn on this stretch of road start dying; the authorities believe them to be suicides but Donna's investigation leads her to believe they are connected to using that road. With the help of Kevin, a friend in the police, she aims to prove it. In the process she puts herself in danger.

When I watched this I had no idea that it was a remake of an Indian film and as I've not seen the original I can't say how they compare. I thought the story had some interesting ideas and these led to some enjoyably creepy scenes. The ghost effects are pretty good; done physically rather than obvious CGI... the scariness was unfortunately lost towards the end when one of the ghosts speaks to the person who inadvertently caused her death. The acting is solid enough; especially from Kim Chiu, who plays Donna. I liked the fact that the lead character wasn't the typical 'Miss Perfect', many of the things she did to get stories were certainly both immoral and illegal. Overall I wouldn't call this a must see but if you are looking for a horror film made somewhere different it is worth watching.

These comments are based on watching the film in Filipino with English subtitles.

So annoying, it doesn't even have that "it's so bad that it's fun" appeal. Total trash! I don't understand what draw Kim Chiu and Tony Labrusca could have on Filipinos.

U-Turn is a B-movie of the thriller/ suspense/ horror genre.

Decent acting with, what seems to be basically rudderless direction.

Both my wife and myself very rarely watch anything Asian; since their culture is so hard to relate to; being so vastly different from that of the West.

Inconsistent English dubbing, along with inconsistent English closed-captioning. Additionally, it's hard to both take in the scenes and read the CC because of the poor pacing.

Decent special effects.

Hollywood cliché #194: there will be an unruly crowd at a crime scene minutes after the police first arrive.

A crime scene tape perimeter is to ignored.

It is perfectly acceptable to steal from the dead because, like, what are they going to do about it?

In a Western country Donna would have been arrested. Several times.

As a film released in 2020, I expected that Filipino horror film creators to take note of the multiple criticisms Philippine horror has accrued over the previous decade. However sadly, this film let me down. On top of the overuse of jump scares, I also noticed that the plot heavily relies on the main character's stupidity and lack of common sense. Because of this, instead of empathizing with the character, I am led to questioning their judgment, and laughing at their choice of actions (Not a good sign of an immersive experience). Hope that this is not the best that Philippine Horror has to offer.