TWO LOCAL horror flicks were shown consecutively, “Maria Leonora Teresa” and “Dementia”. We purposely delayed reviewing it as what we write contains spoilers. So if you have plans to watch them, skip this. Both films ask us to suspend our disbelief a lot and demonstrate how difficult it is to do a convincing horror movie.
Like what we always say, scary flicks will only work if the leading characters are totally sympathetic that you will fear for their safety. This worked in Chito Rono’s “Feng Shui” and “The Healing” because the lead characters, Kris Aquino and Vilma Santos, are just innocent bystanders of malevolence.
Both MLT and Dementia have mysteries to be solved that ultimately lead to restless souls out for revenge against the people who have done them wrong. In “Maria Leonora Teresa”, Iza Calzado, Jodi Sta. Maria and Zanjoe Marudo become the targets of a boy who died in a fire and his “mangkukulam” dad (Cris Villanueva) because they somehow all have some kind of participation in the boy’s untimely death. In “Dementia”, Nora Aunor is the target of an avenging soul, Chynna Ortaleza, who she pushed to death off a cliff.
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Between the two films, “Dementia” is much more beautifully mounted. “MLT” is the one that’s more “masa” in its execution and has no pretensions other than for the viewer to have fun in a trashy way. But Director Wenn Deramas gets inventive with his camera shots using a helicopter and a crucial bus crash is very well staged. “MLT” also has more boo moments engineered to strong arm the audience into being jolted, including the age old technique of a cat suddenly jumping from off frame. It’s also very violent, to please horror fans that go for cheap thrills. It’s not surprising that it got an R-13 rating because of the excessive scenes of bloody carnage where the culprits are little girls (dolls who come to life like Chucky) who ruthlessly stab and butcher their victims with glee. This alone will make you cringe. But the story gets more and more silly and reaches the nadir of silliness in its bombastic climax when Iza and Jodi are giving the dead boy a decent but unbelievably hasty burial, then Cris Villanueva suddenly turns up to kill then, then Zanjoe also instantly turns up to rescue them. But still, despite the absurdity and being weighed down by its own silliness, the audience laps it up and it succeeds in being a crowd pleaser to those who go for this kind of mindless horror train ride.
