User reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.

I sat down and watched this movie at first not expecting much. I've seen a few Philippine films before and considered them about on par with American TV movies due to their low budget. "Sigaw" shows the viewer that an impressive movie can be made when a quality script, quality director and quality actors get together.

"Sigaw" is the story of about a young man who moves into an apartment building and can't find peace because of the constant noise create by the domestic problems of his neighbors down the hall. The neighbor wife and daughter are being routinely terrorized and victimized by her jealous husband. The husband and wife engage in the same argument word for word every evening--literally! The new tenant begins to hear strange noises and see strange sights in the dark hallway and eventually in his apartment. He tells his girlfriend, who at first doesn't believe him and insists that he just move out, but she later discovers, much to her dismay, that there's something very strange going on at her boyfriend's place and that they both have been swept into a terrifying situation in which there is no apparent escape.

Sigaw reminded me of two other Asian scary gems--"Ringu" (later remade as "The Ring") and "The Eye." It's an excellent film that shouldn't be missed. One note: It is a foreign film, so there are subtitles, but much of the movie best scenes are, in fact unspoken.

I highly recommend it.

To start with, I'm an American "mutt." I don't consider myself to belong to any culture unless "white bread" should start appearing on the US census. I speak almost no Tagalog (Filipino), and understand little. That said, I watched "Sigaw" on DVD with English subtitles.

"Sigaw" is an interesting movie. It lacks the visual cues to let an American audience know "This is the present..." "this is the past..." but it's a movie that shows the history of a haunted apartment building in parallel (past and present). We see a struggling restaurant owner trying to make sense of the noises and getting little sleep. We see another younger man trying not to get involved in a very loud domestic dispute.

The movie centers on the present-day man trying to make sense of it, and just trying to get by, hopefully by ignoring it. The movie is mostly atmospheric, with a few surprises, and little gore. Similar to the "The Others" and "Sixth Sense", most of the fun is trying to figure out what's the story, and what's the right solution.

American cinema often borrows from foreign. "The Birdcage" is a remake of a French play. "The Ring" and "The Grudge" are both remakes from Asia. Doing an American remake of "Sigaw" might be worthwhile for a director who values atmosphere and story over effects and gore. On the whole, I'd recommend "Sigaw" for Americans who enjoy wondering about what goes bump in the night...

Within 8 minutes you can figure out what is going on. But it takes the director almost forever (85 minutes) to reveal the story officially to the viewer as if someone still hasn't a clue by then even when a certain event gets repeated over and over again. And if there had been some twist at the end or something else to compensate than I could have forgiven the director for this mistake. Sadly there aren't any surprises to be found in this movie.Sigaw started out pretty good by building a tense atmosphere only to ruin it with loud sound effects. The main character early on hears but also sees things. And this is the part that doesn't make sense. The place he lives is in a dump. Apparently he is one of the few people who are staying in the building. All the other tenants have fled. Still he refuses to leave his precious unit. Why? That never gets explained.(Well,he mentions he has bought the unit. But somehow this reason doesn't convince me enough since he has a very sweet mother who wants him to return to his old home.) It would have created some sympathy towards this character if we understood why it is so necessary for him to stay. Now he just seems very stupid who has an even more stupid (but good looking) girlfriend called Pinky who does things a normal person in their position never would do. The whole time we have to endure the lack of real thrilling moments combined with the stupid actions of these characters.If you managed to stay awake till the ending than you'll find out that there is no reward for doing so since the ending is complete abysmal and the most stupid of endings I have ever seen.I hate to say it but there is nothing that Sigaw offers that is worth watching. Waste of time!

Philippine cinema hasn't seen a horror movie with so much artistry and passion since the production of Sigaw. For the past 30 years or so, Filipinos only witnessed campy and hack horror films. Filipino producers could only produce 3-in-1 feature lengths or even worse, over used monster films based from Filipino folk tales like the Tikbalang or Tiyanak. These days, local movie studios are just contented doing hack films from Asia and America. The makers of Sigaw pulled all the strings in their power to create something different and original.

Forget about the depth of the story, Sigaw was not made to rip off awards. Sigaw was made simply to give its audience a good scare. In this regard, the movie succeeds all expectations. Director Yam Laranas implores all the necessary ingredients to deliver a high octane adrenaline rush flick. His visuals combined with Almbert Michael Idioma's sound then edited by Manet Dayrit made a bone chilling movie experience.

Sigaw is the comeback movie from Yam Laranas. After his last 2 films, Laranas finally went back to his forte, the suspense genre. This reemergence so to speak is similar to Gus Van Sant's return in doing his masterpiece, the Elephant. I am thankful for Laranas for going back to his roots and doing Sigaw. At long last, there is a Filipino horror film i could be proud of. Moreover, this could be the very first Filipino horror film to scare the entire world!

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!

Just when horror movies were becoming predictable, SIGAW and its director Yam Laranas came along to deliver the biggest scare of all.

And it's a scare that's not achieved with special effects and thick makeup and even thicker music -- but by going to the core of what really scares us.

That noise we can't explain. That thing that doesn't look right. That person who is there but should not be there. Something that seems to be following you.

Sigaw is genuinely, deeply creepy.

I don't know if Hollywood would see they've got a gem of a film here. Sigaw has its peculiar sense of timing. It certainly doesn't conform to a Hollywood formula of one scare per ten minutes. There is a long scene where the director keeps you in a state of simple nervous expectancy. And then are there are non stop scares where you're hardly allowed to breath. But that's exactly why fans of horror will need and want this one. It's a shot in the arm for the genre.

During the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film (www.bifff.org) we saw ECHO. We wanted to be scared and we were... We didn't expect to be that scared. That's why our vote is high. But, we must say the actors weren't that good. We saw easily that they were playing a role, they weren't realistic. The sounds made us make jumps from our seats. The story was revisited but all the stuff around made that movie watchable. The make up was well done. We really like that kind of film here. The Asian films are the best. But we only can see them during festivals or events. That's quite sad for us. Thanks to all the people who made all that events possible. We really appreciate that from here.

I got to see this movie back when it was first shown as part of the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (when only local films are allowed to be shown in theaters). The audience reaction was overwhelmingly positive as we all screamed and gasped in the right places.

Admittedly, the film is hardly original but it still manages to create a personality of its own, distinct from the Japanese and other Asian horror films. The film's worst flaw is its use of similar looking actors for scenes taking place in the past and present. This creates some confusion in the audience as to what exactly is happening.

Otherwise, the film is laudable in the way it effectively marshals its limited resources (it takes place essentially in one setting) to create a very creepy and atmospheric film. This is a must for fans of horror movies.

This is the most rudimentary ghost story I've seen in some time, and also one of the most frightening. It re-awoke what I used to know as a child but a surfeit of ghost stories and movies had since made me forget: how horrible it would be to be haunted. The constant fear of coming home, or going to sleep, or turning around.... The sense of this is conveyed partly by the plain but nerve-jangling music and sound, partly by the two leading actors, who know how to be scared, but mainly, I think, because the movie observes its ghosts with the same directness and apparent belief as its living characters. It is helped in this by the absence of high-tech effects, and also by its inelegant look (which may have been intentional): grotty color, blurry focus, and a general air of undependableness. This is one for ghost story fans to watch alone in the dark.

This is as been I on watch list for time and so as the remake even thought the plot sound so-what different.

First 20 minutes of the movie, It the look of it was bit too much like Dark Water (Which I only saw yesterday) but as carried on, it was nothing like Dark Water at all.

The story is a little predicable here and there but how they filmed this movie was great. they really manage to really creepy you out.

There not many Jumps scenes in this movie for one second and move on this movie dose not want to scare you, it want to creep the hell out of you.

Some of those well really well shot and I was really creepy out in some scenes the hair and the back of neck start stand up.

I really enjoyed how the story and movie came to a end,

Few thing could have been better, I could had better lead actor as Some of the acting wasn't great but it was more then watch-able.

I don't why but I do feel that some of subtitled didn't fit in right with some of the scene.

This was one the best ghost stories I seen in a long time 8 out of 10