Sigaw

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...

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 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.

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.

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.