In horror, sincerity stands as the most welcoming and, simultaneously, repelling factor for a genre filmmaker. Terror is forthright; this fundamental directness of the genre both introduces to and restricts itself from countless possibilities. Explaining then how few sincerely understand the business of fear; how few of them succeed. Then what,
Author: Armando Dela Cruz
Genre apologist. Coffee enthusiast. All-around good guy.
Your 100 hardly un-thought of favorite books, per Facebook chain posts; ‘Harry Potter’ hailed #1
There is a notorious chain-post going around on Facebook, inspiring (seemingly) everyone to join in and list books that have stayed with or influenced them. The unofficial mechanics follow: “List 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take more than a few minutes, and don’t think
TSZ#1: ‘The Gifted’ (2014)
THE SPOILER ZONE is a haven (on a different dimension, perhaps? Erm, doesn’t matter…) in which one can further discuss a film most elaborate and insightful as possible, in hoping that for a deeper understanding on said film. Here spoiler-y details not only allowed, but encouraged. So step out, if you
![Thank God it’s ‘Sabado’ [bukas]! The new music video from Eraserheads is here…](https://www.filmpolicereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/vlcsnap-2014-09-13-00h12m44s5.png)
Thank God it’s ‘Sabado’ [bukas]! The new music video from Eraserheads is here…
Taking to his Facebook profile this morning, Erik Matti shares the latest of his labors of love: a music video, in true laid-back E-heads spirit, for what is set to be their comeback hit, Sabado (click here to read our track review). The video, commissioned by Esquire Philippines (whose special September issue is
The Gifted
Besides the Blue Suede-sequence from Boy Golden, the epilogue in Chris Martinez’s Kimmy Dora: Ang Kyemeng Sequel is one of the cleverest things to grace last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival. The scene is subversive and (meta-textually) expositive of the festival it contends on. It is postmodern mind-fucking in an
Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel ‘Hansel & Gretel’ lands film adaptation
Despite the timid success of the recent Jeremy Renner-starring Hansel & Gretel film, another one is being pushed through, this time taking Neil Gaiman’s same-name graphic novel as source material. It is worth to note that Gaiman’s graphic novel breathes a much bleaker air than last year’s Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, which
First-Look at ‘Thor #1’ Teases Female Thor
There is just about countless things to happen upon the emergence a brand-new Thor — “This is not She-Thor,” notes writer Jason Aaron. “This is not Lady Thor. This is not Thorita. This is Thor. This is the Thor of the Marvel Universe. But it’s unlike any Thor we’ve ever
Watch: Bloody Red Band Trailer for ‘ABC’s of Death 2’
The crimson-blood, very red-band trailer for the much-awaited sequel ABC’s of Death 2 is upon us; and it must have been a painfully slow wait but it looks like all is worthwhile. There’s one scene, for instance, in grim stop-motion and another, in true ABCs of Death form, putting a grotesque spin at
Neil Gaiman releases new short story collection this February
My introduction to Neil Gaiman’s shorter works of fiction is his A Study in Emerald (featured in his collection Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders) from which point I was compelled to read more of the English virtuoso, from his exceptional graphic novels to supremely re-tweetable one-line slices-of-life. Someone at Tumblr seems to share
Great job, internet! Watch this amazing Saul Bass-inspired alt-title sequence for ‘Game of Thrones’
Now that Game of Thrones fans have yet to sit through another lengthy wait for the next season, the internet is conspiring in order to supress the seemingly worldwide anxiety. George R.R. Martin — who promises to be a more flexible killer in his succeeding writing — is releasing his
Watch: Adam Levine makes Michael Jackson impression singing the ‘Sesame Street’ theme
If you’ll permit us to break character for some supremely shareable content: Adam Levine doing a Michael Jackson impression whilst singing the theme for Sesame Street. It is an odd formula, to be certain, but one has to remember that odd is the primary commodity in The Tonight Show. The Maroon 5-singer (alongside
Watch: Fast-foward to two years of ‘Uncanny Avengers’ so far in three-minute ‘Axis’ Primer
Only a little over a month before its slated release, Marvel has published online a primer for its upcoming major comic event Avengers & X-Men: Axis, squeezing into a three-minute video what happened in their flagship series Uncanny Avengers thus far. The upcoming comic will essentially follow the story line by writer
San Lazaro
In the occult film San Lazaro, the demons taking over its characters are only internal and untapped; one apparently does not need a soul-consuming entity in order to meet his fallout. Wincy Aquino Ong understands this much, yet as the film director he does not count on terror, than so much
Trailer: Alexandre Aja’s ‘The Pyramid’ Unearths Legendary Evil
We are only a few weeks from the release of the much-awaited adaptation of Joe Hill’s novel Horns, a film with which director Alexandre Aja rekindles fire among his critics, rediscovering at last his distinctive flair first made note of in his electric psychological-thriller Haute Tension. Aja, who post-Haute has since plunged into a handful of
Watch: David Lynch’s Ice(d-coffee) Bucket Challenge takes an aptly Lynchian turn
Most are likely to think they have seen the best ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on the internet, but what we fail to understand is that the internet is forever. It is both a blessing and a curse. One can champion a current favourite until a new one takes over that
You can now play Bingo as you read Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami’s latest novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage has landed bookstores and readers all over the world are winding through the pages, possibly making note more than once of the numerous recurring themes and narrative elements to the author’s latest work. An artist named Grant Snider
George R.R. Martin is going to be more savage in killing off his characters, like it is news
The author of the series Song of Ice and Fire might be history’s first serial killer who openly does his craft and gets away with it — every time. We know his M.O., or at least we think we do. He hates heroes, or at least he understands that we like heroes, so
Talk Back and You’re Dead
There is but a single thread stringing together the story of Talk Back and You’re Dead, thus far the latest amongst the Wattpad-imports currently most ubiquitous in Philippine theatres. The film, essentially a tween girl’s romantic reverie strung nervily after another, incidentally resonates how random teenage romances tend to become. But
Trailer: ‘Amityville: The Awakening’ revisits a supposed-to-be unsalable estate.
Since the Lutzes were scurried away from the infamous haunted house in Long Island, New York, a handful of follow-ups and hopeful revamps have been produced to keep the barely enduring franchise alive. Now, officially the 12th title since the 1979 original, the Amityville franchise is looking to revisit the estate with an
Wolf Creek
The smaller moments in Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek inspire liberation from the conventions of grotesque cinema: a slight, giggly yet sincere wedding of the lips; the occasional jealous-driven tantrums; all the friendly bickering, among countless, all-treasured others. In close to an hour, our three backpackers — displaced in McLean’s at once
Diary ng Panget
The general observation for Andoy Ranay’s Diary ng Panget is that it can be viewed as a substandard Cinderella byproduct — and it is — where the youth revolt for reasons no greater than excess pimples and earlier Mac book generations. Though one particular scene gleams in utter radiance and nags of biting reality: in a student council
We Need Votes! Help Make Filipino Horror Film ‘The Disturbed’ Happen!
Tyrone “Ty” Acierto, the acclaimed director of MMFF New Breed-sleeper The Grave Bandits, is trying to make his new horror film The Disturbed happen thru an online film-funding program based in Canada. At the bottom is the 60-minute video pitch for his film idea, following a failed exorcism attempt at a malevolent, territorial evil.
Barber’s Tales
For most of Jun Lana’s new film Barber’s Tales (alternatively known as Mga Kwentong Barbero), the women who live in the small rural town fraught under Ferdinand Marcos’ regime, in their respective crises are either battered or deprived. If they are not fixtures, they are instruments; never truly people to
Ang Katiwala
Meant — rather explicitly — as a propaganda for the late President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines Manuel L. Quezon, Aloy Adlawan’s Ang Katiwala (The Caretaker), makes for a convoluted debacle of an assortment of ideas that are never entirely developed. The scripting is weak. It finds an illiterate family
Les Revenants
In Les revenants (They Came Back, 2004) the threat posed by a vast river of bodies inexplicably risen from their recent deaths, is far more internal than losing jugulars and seeing outbreaks of mass contagion. The film — directed by Robin Campillos — relies on the primitive terrors of tragedy, pressed
