The year 2008 has added two horror films (“Kulam” and “Shake Rattle & Roll 10”) into the long list of Philippine horror movies--a genre that never failed to at least get back what the production companies have spent filming them. A number that is quite unimaginable for a country so fond of this type of films. This year, it seems that there is more faith to that assumption. Two months before closing the year, moviegoers have already seen two horror films in the local commercial line-up: GMA’s “Sundo” & “Patient X”, Regals’s “Tarot”, some independent production like “Manghuhula”, and Star Cinema’s “Villa Estrella” and “T2”
T2 is a riveting narrative of dilatory confrontations of our lives’ painful and unacceptable realities embellished with real accounts of supernatural encounters with engkantos researched during its concept development period. The movie tells the story of Claire (Maricel Soriano), a travel agency owner who volunteers in an organization that ensures that every orphan in their custody will have a family they will grow up with, being an orphan herself. Claire together with Elias (Eric Fructuoso), sends and accompanies an orphan named Angeli (Mica Dela Cruz) to a mentioned aunt in a certain tenement in Manila Manila
The film is a beautiful delineation of a point in every person’s life where we want to escape but just could not possibly do so. The domination of journey in the film provides an easy picture of life superimposed with escape. This journey-horror theme is also something new. We always see horror films about vacations on places, going back to Manila, and going back again to the province after they experience inexplicable things they need to find answers before everything becomes late (“Ouija”, “Siquijor”), but seldom we do see a film that treats journey as an adornment to a horror story more than just a logical explanation of moving from point A to point B.
Clair is trying to get away from the painful break-up with her partner. We see the passion she has to the organization she is involved as she immediately find it as the first and probably only resort from her extreme disappointment. Her character sets aside her own horror by helping a little girl who also wishes to run away from her own horror. Unbeknownst to the two of them, they need one another to resolve each other’s problems. This has been exemplified in the scene where Claire realized that the reason why they have met is because they can fill each other’s long deprival—parents for Angeli and a daughter for Claire.
What I really like about the film is that it is not just a horror film that tries to disgust audiences with their gross monster’s clammy green saliva or to shock them with growling gruesome ghosts. I can actually label T2 as a drama-horror film more than a horror-drama movie. I felt the fear of the characters through their emptiness that surely will have no other means of filling it up but by the security of familial protection. I love the fact that the film is very Filipino—the mystique of the supernatural, the importance of a family, the drama, the horror, the tenement. This has even elevated the level of family in Philippine drama by affirming a family related by heart and not necessarily by blood.
A film will never be good or bad without the performances of the actors. Have they remained to the characterization faithfully, or have they been confused with the hundreds of characters they have been once with their actual selves? Are they convincing enough to love or to hate them, or at least empathize them? Maricel Soriano, is at least for me Philippine Cinema’s Meryl Streep (though she even have more acting awards than Streep). Soriano is an acting chameleon. I actually adore her. You can always see her do decent acting. In T2, Soriano is again consistent and strong. This is not her best nor her worst, though her worst is still better than other actor around. Mica Dela Cruz is a fantastic revelation. She has contributed so much to the suspension of disbelief in the film. This is a wonderful, commendable act for a child star giving quality support to a Philippine movie icon. Eric Fructuoso’s acting is also impressive. He doesn’t have any scene of ultimate moment in the film that you can see award giving bodies show in awards night as a nomination clip for acting, but he is faithful throughout. This is actually one of the reasons why I felt sad in his character has to die.
Oftentimes we hear stories about people who have been to that mystical world of engkantos telling of their blinding world. That might be the biggest challenge of mounting T2 I suppose. Practically, Philippine cinema can only achieve that by pure special effects. A third world country cinema can’t build phantasmagoric sets to depict such place, a sad reality but will continue to be a dram for film enthusiasts. Most of the special effects are awesome, something that you will be proud of. The façade of the palace where Claire stands before and the overview of the whole place at the background where fireworks are displayed are stunning amazing. For some time, I thought I was watching a Hollywood fantasy-adventure film. But nothing can just be perfect yet. Inside the palace, the design is still worth seeing but other production values wanes. The number of people/engkantos inside is very small, the central platform where the higher ranked engkantos are standing is also very small and uneventful looking, even the costumes are too simple for a place that is supposed to be fanciful. The cinematography and special effects at that point have seemed to overlook the phantasm of the scene. The lighting is very even, I can’t get out of my mind that the world I am seeing is just shot behind green screens. This could have been a scene where the best lightings could have been experimented and explored. This is what I love about “Pan’s Labyrinth”, where the cinematography and visual effects at the kingdom where Ofelia turns to be a princess is very immaculate. It just dramatically melts in your eyes like a chocolate melts in your mouth. But lingering the difference in the cinematography will be a waste of time, again this will remain a dream for future Filipino filmmakers.
T2 is a very good story, a good film, what it lacks is what a third world country cinema lacks—technological filmic advancement. But I definitely do not and will never condemn this for lacking that part because it has created an interesting mix of genre. The film is coherent with many elements that have something to do with journey. T2 for me is one of the better films our country ha produced at least for the year. Keeping the heart at the forefront while clinging to the horror that is economically and even artistically tested, T2 succeeds to show us that Philippine horror films are continuing to be original and that we can create them excellently and even more so with advanced filmmaking techniques/equipment in the future .
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