The
acting wasn't too good. The inserts of English words into the
dialogue just didn't seem natural, or consistent as they were also using deep Tagalog terms, such as "
Pakita" instead of "
Patingin". Okay, that's not really the best example, but I can't remember everything, and I'm pretty sure you know what I mean.
The
surprising parts were surprising and the
suspense parts were suspenseful, although I think the ghosts were wee bit too
aggressive. I suppose that's so they're scarier, but it kind of lessened the eerie,
creepy, shows-up-when-you-least-expect-it moments. And except for the part in the last accident, the cuts in the scenes seemed somewhat wrong in timing, so
cinematography was also a bit off.
The
story was pretty interesting, with the exception of the supposed
history of the cursed object, because I seriously doubt that something that's supposed to be as old as that could've survived history in one piece. I'd much rather have been convinced if they said that it was just a
mystery, how it got all cursed and evil, or at least they've made the ghost (which I think is the real reason they came up with background--to have an old female ghost (Sadako, much?) haunting) from not so long ago. But the whole 'Year of the Rabbit' etc. stuff was pretty cool. It was kinda
funny how many 'Year of the Horse'-related stuff they could think of without using actual horses. And the
complications they thought of for the story to go the way nobody wants it to (as in, the choices
Kris Aquino's character had to make to be able to end the curse), was also great. I liked how they used
natural occurences (i.e. car crashes, psychotic people, etc.) instead of 'freak accidents' like in
Fatal Destination as causes of death. It made everything seem less suspicious and really just a case of
bad luck.
All in all, it wasn't
completely scary, but at least it wasn't funny like the old films anymore. The ghosts kind of reminded me of the dead people in the Hollywood version of
The Ring, so I guess this one's like a
combination of the Asian and Western style in horror films (maybe I'd discuss this in detail in later entries).
If there was something that made me think our movie industry's
not improving, it would be the fact that the projector in the cinema was screwed up and the movie was
interrupted three times. Maybe that contributes to lessening the scary effect, but don't expect
me to watch it
again just to see if that's true. I told you, I'm
very easily scared.
P.S. I was supposed to put a picture (like I do in the other movie reviews), but while I was searching for it in the net, I realized I'd rather not, or I might get scared of visiting my own blog. :P
