). He is seen walking with a lamp in his hand, on his way to his house. He gets inside a room, and puts down the lamp. We see a person writhing, and bound. Dario nears the bed and unsheathes his machete, and forcefully hacks at the person.
Scene cut to: Dario waking up from a bad dream.
It then shows various aspects of how Dario, a farmer, goes about his life, having meals with his family(wife and child), going about his work, and at night, having a drink with his friend. The next day, the wife, Yenna (Mercedes Cabral) is on her way to a trip to do some laundry, and Dario going to the friend's house to look for him. The film shows the wife's process of washing clothes, and as she places the clothes on shrubs and bushes to dry, she sees the friend of Dario's approaching her. She makes a comment, but the friend doesn't answer. She screams, and Dario not being far off, runs towards the noise. As Dario sees his friend trying to bite his wife's leg, he takes his machete out and kills him.
Other characters are then introduced, like Lauro (Rez Cortez), the police captain there in the area, having dinner with his family, a daughter-turned doctor, Maribel (Donna Gimeno), who came to help at the local clinic, and her priest uncle.
The next morning, Lauro is called out to a crime scene, a local had just killed a girl unknown to most people in the area. The suspect says that girl was demonized and once he killed her, the evil spirit went inside him. The local authorities brought both victim and suspect to the police station, the killer's wife included.
Maribel just arrived home from being called to a local's house to help a family's daughter, looking depressed. When her mother asks her about it, she tells her that she couldn't save the girl. After spending a little time at home, she goes back to the clinic in what seems to be a rabies outburst, people getting bitten and dying.
The wound on Yenna's leg is getting infected, and Dario promises her that he will bring her to the local clinic, but she tells him not to because Dario might get convicted of killing someone. As the wound worsens and Yenna's condition gets worse, Dario asks his son to call the faith healer, Nong Pinong (Greg Tecson), to help with his wife.
As the son walks away Nong Pinong's empty house, he encounters people bloodied and walking towards him, passing him by as he hides from them.
Nong Pinong was called out by the family of the dead local girl to help. He performs a ritual on her, and to his and everyone else's surprise, the girl wakes up and grunting. He tells the family that he saved the body, but not the soul, and with the empty body, a spirit had gone inside to inhabit. The family takes the girl to the local clinic.
Lauro and the others are at the police station deciding to do with the girl that was just murdered. He ultimately decides to have her taken to the city police station, but he tells his companion to bring the body discreetly. Inside the station, the wife of the murderer is mourning the death of her husband who had died from his wounds, telling him not to leave her. And he wakes up and kills her, and wreaks havoc in the police station. The people managed to get him locked inside the station.
The movie then cuts to the scene that was shown at the start, it is revealed that the writhing person on the bed was Dario's wife. The next morning, he takes his son with him to go to the police station where Lauro is, knowing that the police captain has a car, hoping they might convince him to take them out of the area.
At the clinic, people had started to die from their wounds and Maribel, feeling helpless, gets depressed. She sees the local family bringing their daughter up to the clinic and is horrified, knowing full well that the girl had died when she tried to help her last night.
Nong Pinong tells the family that only the priest can help with their daughter, and they ask the priest to help. She is brought to the local chapel, and the priest performs an exorcism on the girl, hoping to drag the spirit out. The priest had been bitten, but was still able help, albeit unsuccessfully.
Maribel explains to her father about the dead girl, and they, together with one of her father's men, Istoy, and Nong Pinong go back to their house to find her mother. When they arrive at their house, they do not find Chit, Lauro's wife and Maribel's mother. And Lauro tells them that he will not leave without her. Lauro tells them to stay inside the house, and to tend to Istoy who had been bitten.
Dario and Nat-Nat were travelling on foot, and Dario explains to his son that there are monsters lurking, the "Di Ingon 'Nato" (Not Like Us), telling him that they are just like us, but really unlike us. On their way, they come across a woman in a nearby river and Dario warns her that the area is unsafe, but the woman is already turned. Nat-Nat was being attacked, and Lauro who was looking for his wife, kills the attacker and saves Nat-Nat. They all go back to the house to find refuge.
Lauro, Dario and his son arrived back at the house. Lauro and the entire group take his old truck and drive off, but the vehicle stops short. And they see that a group of the creatures going towards them. Maribel and Nat-Nat are told to run back to the house, bar the doors and stay there, while the others fend off the group of attackers.
It is shown that the group is outnumbered and they all die, one after another: Istoy who was too weak to stand and fend for himself, Lauro who had run out of bullets, and Dario and Nong Pinong too outnumbered to attack with their knives.
Back at the house, Maribel and Nat-Nat are stranded in a corner. Maribel and Nat-Nat, the only people left, crying, see the creatures trying to get inside, destroying the doors. The movie ends with Maribel holding Nat-Nat close and covering his eyes.
Fade to black. Title. Credits.
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| Poster featuring the movies at the Cinema One Film Festival |
From the very start of the movie, the problem I had was the lighting. The film relied too heavily on available light. And when a scene was filmed at night. The only light that was available was the lamp which was being carried by one of the characters.
The entire environment of the film was beautiful, showing off the local forest and the creatures that inhabit it (not the zombies.) But it seemed like that after every scene cut, they always cut to ants crawling on a rock, clouds turning from day to night. This was a very good idea, at the beginning of the film. When they cut to these kinds of little scenes nearing the end, it makes it very anti-climactic, and it made the film's pace slower than it already was.
The film also suffers from weak dialogues. The characters' back-and-forth seemed so empty. The recorded voices were also at sometimes too low which made the conversations inaudible. One particular scene was when Yenna was talking to Dario's friend. So, it was a good thing that there were subtitles, but the English subtitles suffered from weak translation. I could not blame the translator because some words in the Cebuano dialect can be very hard to translate.
The lack of a score in some introductory scenes gave the film a sense of eeriness; if it was done to give it that, then well done. But I feel a little more than the environmental sounds could have given it a little more.
I praise the costume design, the zombies and the people they feasted on seemed very real, reminiscent of the "walkers" of The Walking Dead. The only downside to the gore was the killing of the zombies which looked like cheap splatter done in post-production.
The parts of Lauro and Dario were very well acted. Props to Mr. Rez Cortez and Mr. Franco Reyes. Donna Gimeno really carried out scenes where she cried, and to the child actor playing Nat-Nat who carried out his innocence well.
Another thing that I liked about this film was its ending. It did not live up to the expectations in my head that it would end in a sappy "happily-ever-after" kind of way, but nearing the end I had gotten a pretty good idea that this was the ending they were going with.
I think that non-Cebuano viewers would have a hard time relating to the characters. The audience members, comprised of mostly Cebuanos understand the language enough to have a good time, and laugh at some of the weak English translations and some tight close-up scenes of Mr. Rez Cortez cursing.
All-in-all, the movie was okay, not as bad as I thought it would be. But this is considering the fact that I was with friends at the time of viewing. If you would watch this alone, this movie would get too boring, and you would just have the urge to skip ahead.
The movie gave me a sense that Cebuano films are still well under their way, and maybe other young and aspiring filmmakers could one day take up the responsibility and make a name in the Filipino film industry.
Watch if you will, the Cinema One Film Festival is only available for show at SM on Cinema 3 for only 100 pesos. Here's the schedule below. Watch now, support Cebuano indie films!
