The 38th Metro Manila Film Festival

Last December 25, 2012 the official movie entries to the 38th Metro Manila Film Festival was released in cinemas. The list of the film entries were El Presidente, One More Try, Shake,Rattle & Roll 14, SiAgimat, Si Enteng at Si Ako,  Sisterekas, Sosy Problems, The Strangers and Thy Womb.. During the festival, no foreign films were shown in Philippine theaters to support the locally produced films. 

In the list of the official movie entries, I was able to watch Shake, Rattle & Roll 14 (because I was required to make a paper about this in one of my subjects, though I would have preferred to watch Sisterakas for being a comedy film haha. I mean who doesn't want a good laugh in the break?). Anyway, the film just like its thirteen predecessors, consist of 3 different horror stories which are, you can say, very Filipino(well except for the 3rd one, you'll see why). 

The first of the three stories was 'Pamana', This is about 4 cousins who all of a sudden inherits money worth 20 million pesos and 4 of their uncles most valued comic artworks which are all scary. Out of the 4 cousins, 2 keeps the artwork while the other 2 throws it away. The 2 that threw the artworks they inherited became haunted by the characters and results into one of the cousins dying. They went back to their deceased uncle's mansion, and was haunted there by all of the characters in the artworks with an additional one. In the end, only of the four cousins survived and she inherited all of the 20 million, but not knowing that one of the devils from the artwork was with her. 

["Brrr. Don't Touch Me." HAHA]
Kondenado, one of the artworks that came to life.

The band of good looking soldiers out to face their worst nightmares

The next story was 'Lost Command'. I must say that this is the scariest of the three, though not really bordering the scary factor you get from other horror movies. This is about a platoon of soldiers venturing in a dark forest going after unknown hostiles. Unbeknownst to them, the hostiles they are going after is a band of soldier-turned-into-man-eating-monsters-who-recruits-other-men-to-be-part-of-their-army. The army turned out to be the lost command the Philippine army lost years ago. Out of the soldiers in the venturing platoon, only one survived. He wakes up in a hospital, and finds out that the bodies next to him were his former friends in the platoon that became monsters. It was then implied at the end of the movie that he didn't really survive since he got turn into one of them in the hospital. 

One of the soldier-turned-into-man-eating-monsters-who-recruits-other-men-to-be-part-of-their-army
There's someone behind him.
Beware, he may be out to get you. >:))

The boyfriend and the not so lucky supposedly survivors

The last story was entitled 'Unwanted'. A couple was having a problem in their relationship and they went to a mall to buy each other a present on the expected to be doomsday, 21st of December year 2012. It was then implied that the woman might be pregnant since before she parted ways with her boyfriend to go to the restroom, she was eyeing the baby things in one of the stores. The unexpected happened, the mall was then struck by an unknown large object. The boyfriend wakes up frantic and starts to look for his girlfriend along with other survivors. On the way, most of the survivors the boyfriend was with, died because of the creatures not from this planet. He finds his girlfriend gets out of the mall but they both died after they met the alien beings and the mall collapsed above them.

The couple reunited

That's the three stories. The last story, Unwanted, seems to me like it was referenced to one of those alien/invasion movies in Hollywood. The movie was okay, a bit entertaining since even if it wasn't that scary, it has some comedic relief in it. The actors who played the roles where very good in acting and I think they conveyed their roles really well. The movie also deserve a praise for using very good visual effects, though it still far-off if you compare it to Hollywood movies. The movie all in all, was not really very scary, it tilts more on the funny side rather than it being scary, but still the funny parts were entertaining. I think the movie The Strangers is scarier than this.Enough with the movie, let's go to the awards the movie received. Well I must say, at least it got an award even though it isn't the top grosser. It got the Best Visual Effects award. They really deserve this, I think since, the visual effects were good. Well, I must say that it was an okay movie to watch though I would still really prefer to watch Sisterakas because it's obviously funny because its got 2 of the best comedians in the industry. Oh well, these might be all, about the 38th Metro Manila Film Festival.

Perhaps a Comment no? Even a violent reaction is welcome. Please?