Be cautioned of three-quarters of this year’s edition of Sineng Pambansa Film Festival, brazenly subtitled with ‘Horror Plus’ like it had been last year with ‘Master’s Edition.’ Those who saw last year’s lineup of films will hear the vivid sarcasm to this statement. And if that previous fest had lost you confidence, ‘Horror Plus’ seems to exist strictly to establish this trajectory. Are you honestly not down for Year Three?
Sigaw sa Hatinggabi, for instance, is agreeably terrible. It leaps beyond that description too. It is terrible, period. Vague, I know, but hear me out. The unforgiving audience will brand it a “total manure,” a “complete waste of money,” or an “err for its existence,” and they will be, by all means, right. The film meanders between contemptuous sonic assaults and awful narrative choices. Imagine: a paranormal medium (Regine Ageles) goes about her everyday ghoul-filled life but, for some reason, has not been accustomed to the occasional séances that will appear upon her on a regular basis. I mean: always and just always will the woman make folds between her eyes and gasp like it is the end of her whenever Suzara pulls off head-scratching scares. How unprofessional, this medium? Put simply: the film is remarkably terrible (there you go). It will leave a mark if you are half the audience who had not walked out—like me, and I take honest pride with that. I had to live with that, too. That terrible film I cannot un-see and un-remember.
Oz is far ahead on the horizon; the hurricane that whirls us there might have skipped Kansas, but hang in there, dear Toto. We are still three films away from the festival’s entirety.
Although aided by laudable editing and photography, Edgardo “Boy” Vinarao’s Isabela-set domestic-thriller Bacao doesn’t exactly get there either. For a film that spans over six years into a marriage—that of Arnold Reyes and Michelle Madrigal’s characters—Bacao is incredibly slow, almost unmoving, and exhaustive in the whole. For a moment though—in a scene that features a battered wife, portrayed by the terrific Marife Necessito—the film lands finally on something palpable and profound, breaking away from the heavy-handed perversity it strains itself with. Case in point: Leo Martinez’s bit as an ‘albularyo.’
Why not test it on younger women? Propecia is a strong chemical tablet that can cheapest price on viagra have some intense side effects which has been the case with other inferior quality male enhancement pills. However, it is important to understand whether you really have to be careful of when it comes to a man’s ability to control his orgasm. pill sildenafil One of the best doctors who can viagra in india online http://www.devensec.com/viagra-8188.html give you effective treatments for damaged sperms. The other problem with taking these drugs is that once you tread outside of the United States and Canada, you are treading in very dangerous territory. devensec.com ordering levitra is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and sildenafil was approved for this indication in June 2005. 
Gil Portes’s Hukluban follows a triad of romances set in three different periods. Out of its laborious framework, the gist seems that one finds true love every after forty years, and more often than not, they die. Krista Miller plays the character of the woman who unconvincingly falls in love with three generations of Kiko Matos. While admittedly interesting, the central idea of Hukluban feels a mere stretching of a presumably shorter work. Must I wait for the dame to reveal herself the crone when I already know of it minutes early the film’s first third? The film makes you wait and demands for your patience, to really, no rewarding end.
So far, so bad.
I will tell you that Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes’ remake of the 1988 cult classic T’yanak is no Wonderful Oz, either, but it is a solid effort in comparison to the aforementioned entries. A praiseworthy rework of the iconic tale about a mythic baby-vampire. “One of the better horror films to come in our native cinema this year”—read my review here—T’yanak is knowing where it can use some refinement, and succeeds. It is the same story about a shape-shifting infant who turns into a vampiric monster and prowls on its victims; it is only different in that the story is latched on the relationship central to the family that takes in the innocuous-looking baby.” T’yanak might not have been the Oz to some Dorothys, but with terrific portrayals and sensitive flourishes, it is its own ideal Emerald City.
Still, pundits will insist that it should have been ‘Horror Minus Three’ instead of ‘Plus,’ which is just damned true. So: Just what is next FDCP? Just what? What excitement? What amusement? Everyone is on-the-watch.
*Scoreboard: Sigaw ng Hatinggabi (0/5); Bacao (1.5/5); Hukluban (1/5); T’yanak (3.5/5)
