Dalaw

**This is a "NON-SPOILER" alert!! I feel I have no choice but to give this alert since spoiler alerts were placed in at least 3 of my reviews at IMDb's discretion even though there were no spoilers in them. I doubt if they even saw the movie or they would know. I complained (nicely) once and one of them was changed but I can't be bothered any more.

Okay. To business. This movie is about a woman who was in an abusive relationship which came to an end when her husband dies in a car accident due to an argument the two of them were having in the car at the time. The woman was now free of her husband in terms of his actual physical presence in her life. However, for a time, she was haunted by him --or thought that she was-- because she "saw things".

A friend reintroduces her to her first love whose heart she broke when she entered into a marriage of convenience with an abusive man. At this point, the "haunting" she experienced after his death have ceased and it now seems she was completely free to start a new relationship. Eventually they get married --but not uneventfully, since something happens. Later she and her child (a boy) move into her new husband's home where he lives with his mother (something her new mother-in-law had insisted on). Things begin to happen, starting with the woman's son, who is seeing and experiencing things. It shortly becomes clear that the haunting has restarted; a fact the woman assumes to be the result of her deceased former husband's displeasure with her new marriage.

The best thing about this movie is that it has a interesting story with a nice plot twist about the haunting. Unfortunately the whole thing gets blown to hell --I think-- at the end (the last 10-12 mins, or so). I guess they wanted to end with a big bang but I believe they misfired since the result was an over-the-top, non-scary cliché (things flying all over the place and an ineffectual priest) and a ghost that appeared as just a deranged person and not "ghostly creepy" at all. So a nice story ruined by the ending like a gymnast who does some nice twists and turns in the air but then lands on their face. Too bad. Love, Boloxxxi.

This is the story of Stella (Kris Aquino) haunted by a ghost, after she re marries Anton (Diether Ocampo). The "scary" scenes that followed are predictable, if not laughable. And the acting especially of Kris is laughable, if not horrible.

In fact, her voice and facial expression almost did not change throughout the whole movie. I almost felt like rooting for the muddy ghost towards the end, I really didn't care about her character. The story tried to build up the tension at the beginning, but it lost its grip towards the end. The whole premise did not feel scary at all. If you think this was bad enough that they will stop hiring Kris, then you are mistaken. The following year, they did Segunda Mano. Watch this only if you are a Kris fan.

Having only seen a single Pinoy horror movies prior to this, I don't really have much to compare it with. But in comparison to Hong Kong, Korean and Japanese horror movies, then this was a weak bowl of broth. It was fairly far away from being scary (from a Westerner's point of view), but I am sure that it must be semi-scary to Asian viewers.

What wondered me about the movie, was why nearly all of it was shot in the dark or in dim lighting. The lack of illumination really brought down the movie enjoyment, because most of the time it was hard to make out what was going on in the scenes.

The story told in "Dalaw" was actually good and interesting enough, making you want to sit and see what happens next. They managed to build up a lot of suspense in the movie, and that was a good thing. The movie did turn out to be as predictable as I had anticipated. The actual story, quickly summarized, goes something like this: Stella gets married to Anton, and move in together in a new home, together with her son Paolo. But something stirs and is wrong, there is some dark presence in the family. And the caretaker Olga have the ability to see "visitors". So what is it that is haunting the family...?

As for the cast in "Dalaw", then I am not familiar with any of the actors or actresses here. But the movie was carried by Kris Aquino (who played Stella) and Gina Pareño (playing Olga). The rest of the cast was mediocre and didn't really stand out.

I didn't find the ghost scary at all. And once you see it, you will immediately figure out the plot of the story. Trust me. I will not reveal it here, but it is quite predictable.

Being a big fan of Asian movies and Asian horror in general, I found this movie rather weak and far from scary. But all together, this isn't a bad movie at all. There were some really nice aspects to the movie, and a really good story. It could just have used more scare moments. And the effects used in the movie, though fairly simple, actually worked quite well. I especially liked the scene with the furniture moving about in the living room.

I suppose this movie is for die hard Pinoy fans. I however, wasn't overly impressed with it...