Villa Estrella

"Villa Estrella" easily turns to be Star Cinema's strongest output this year so far although what could have been a horror magnum opus is kept simmering dangerously close to a middling cheap shock-peppered murder mystery, where director Rico Ilarde's proficiency in generating suspense is, with egregious interruptions, diffused by its frustrating obligation to follow conventions. As with most local spookies churned by the big players, it's a slick production that regularly trades on atmosphere and a more suggestive style of narrative for the requisite gotcha moments, yet not quite fervent in doling out more intense scenes for its characters (played by actors who look too young for their parts), so as not to alienate its leads' younger fans who apparently are the driving force behind the project's financial success. Apparently, anything more than a PG-13 is detrimental.

Dragged against her wishes away from the city, Anna (Shaina Magdayao) soon starts having dreams of a drowning girl while her ex-boyfriend Alex (Jake Cuenca), hoping to patch things up between them, keeps her stranded in the titular resort that, once managed by their respective dads, has seen better days. Yet all is not well amongst the folks who have made a home around the villa's murky pool: a man acts strangely crazed, a young girl claims to have a friend who may or may not exist, and someone -- something! -- is dragging unsuspecting victims into the pool.

Ilarde's mindful use of space and sound evocatively imbues a constant sense of both warmth and dread -- as typified by the cinematography's assertion to juxtapose the complementary colors of blue and orange -- with its actors carefully framed to reinforce sympathy, as opposed to its masterful spatial editing that augments tension. These technical triumphs, unfortunately, are almost sabotaged by a few hiccups such as a laboriously prolonged scramble to the climax and a twist that, while ultimately satisfying, doesn't require a 20/20 vision to be seen from afar. Still, when the best thing going for it isn't Maja Salvador in a wet nightie, that's got to be something.

Well, I am not really fond of watching Filipino movies but since its a movie from Star Cinema, I decided to check the movie.

The movie has a decent plot but I do not consider it original for it was somehow patterned to the Skeleton Key (a Jennifer Hudson starred Horror/ Thriller flick on 2005).

For me, the movie was a bit disappointing.

It could have been better if they made it a bit more simpler and convincing.

At first, I liked Maja Salvador's acting for she was effective on her portrayal, but when she appeared as monster like sea creature with super powers like a gruesome slimy Alien, the movie began to suck.

Like come on, its acceptable to see Maja as a ghost hunting on the pool but I wonder why she has to have that power that's so unbelievable.

I believe the Director did it for he wanted to make a good twist and to create more thrills.

But I guess he failed and made the movie a bit ridiculous.

5 out of 10 for me..

VILLA ESTRELLA had a good plot to work on, yet it falters in the execution. At the earlier parts of the movie, the musical score just needlessly goes up trying to scare its audiences with cheesy horror-music but fails to do so because there is no build-up, no reason enough to back up the scare yet. One minute into the film, and you start scaring your audiences with shock-sound effects? What do you think your audiences are? Paranoid retards? I hate it when movies like this heavily underestimate its own audiences.

Its premature scare tactics are a liability to the film. The lack of build-up made one of the main monsters of the movie, which is the zombie-like ghost of a little girl, comes off as silly, ridiculous, and funny. Because there was no subtlety in her first appearance, as a consequence, her first appearance looks like a parody, this character becomes a walking joke, extinguishing her scary image.

The film swindles its audiences in a lousy kind of way that it only comes off as bad storytelling. It builds-up this creepy ghost child as its main villain, and then all of the sudden changes its course and completely forgets about that character, not giving her proper explanation or closure. Even if we were to assume that she was being prepped for a sequel, it was still a sloppy confusing exit for her. Then we immediately turn our attention to another villain. It feels like it attempts to look smart by trying to confuse its audiences, but we can clearly see that the story was just badly told, and comes of as stupid instead.

It was also silly to see the main villain at the end come off as something that looks like a villain from Darna or X-men. The storyline did not really need for the main villain to be thickly immersed in prosthetics. A good horror movie, especially with the kind of storyline this movie has, would be great enough if it were executed with simplicity and a little constraint. This is a fine example of a good horror story ruined by additives.

The cast did well. Shaina Magdayao was great as the main protagonist. Maja Salvador, who I found to be alluringly pretty, is excellent as a mysterious girl who also lives in Villa Estrella, Jake Cuenca did also quite well. The rest of the cast from Liza Lorena to the guy who played the comic relief of the movie were really good. The weakest link was Geoff Eigenmann, his acting was not really that bad, but there were scenes where his acting feels so B-movie. There was a scene where I feel like I would like to ask him: Are you dying? …or are you just constipated? Truly the saving grace of the film is that it has a great storyline. The story is not very original, but at least it does not come off as a copycat (as far as I know of anyway, that's because I have not watched any of the other horror movies lately). In fact, the main storyline is a good one. Sure, it's a recycled storyline but it still holds up. The love triangle sub-plot is quite interesting, and for a mainstream tagalog movie, it is refreshing to find a love triangle that does not easily define which side the audiences root for. Shaina's character does not come off as a typical protagonist because she was basically cheating on her boyfriend (arguably, of course), that is why Jake's character is also the one other audiences sympathize with.

It is indeed frustrating to think that this movie could be so much better if only it had more constraint, and a bit more polished direction. If I was to give it a food analogy, this movie is not delicious, but at least, it is quite edible.