Movie Monday: Compilations of Horror Movies I've Watched

I'm a huge fan of horror movies, but I haven't the courage to watch it alone. 

Below are the compilations of horror movies I've watched at cinema.

Dalaw (December 25, 2010)

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. 

Bulong (February 2, 2011) 

The film starts in a church where a centipede-like demon is crawling at the walls. The protagonist Conan really wanted to get Ellen, the girl he liked and so he asked his friend on how to achieve his wish. His friend said that there was a rumor that if you whisper your wish to a dead body, the soul of that body would help you. So he sought the help of Oprah who is also a friend. He whispered to the corpse his wish that she would fall in love with him, but the first one was a failure because the corpse became deaf before it died. Conan went home in disappointment but at the same time an old woman was hit by a car, he whispered his wish. The next day while at work, Conan was met by Ellen in a romantic manner and it seems that his wish had worked. But suddenly the old woman that was killed bgan to haunt him and wanted him to repay the request that he made to her. He found out that the woman was a witch and she wants to ask forgiveness to a girl to whom she used hex She needs Conan to make her drink that is made out of holy water and a part of the old woman's body. Conan and Oprah traveled to Bohol where the girl lives and is attacked by demons during the trip. They finally arrived at the girl's house before being attacked by the centipede-like demon, the girl finally drank the liquid and broke the spell that was cast upon her. The old woman stopped haunting Conan.

The Healing (July 25, 2012)

The Healing has all the earmarks of a fairly typical Filipino horror movie. It takes some element of our local folklore (in this case, faith healers) and brings it to horrific ends. But the movie turns out to be much more than that. Though it stalls the action a little too much, the film is still undeniably fun. It cleverly works in a bit of humor within all the grisly action, and adds a plethora of stylistic touches to make everything feel just a little bit different. 

Seth's father Odong is not able to walk because of a stroke so Seth brought her father to Manang Elsa, a faith healer, to heal the sickness of his father. It was Odong's turn to be healed and Manang Elsa touched him. She prescribed some herbal for his medication to take. When they were leaving the place, someone fainted inside and was immediately brought inside the house. Seth and his father went home. Seth's housemaid Alma has a small party and Seth was tired so she went to her room and slept. But before she slept, she was surprised by the crow flying in her house.

The next day, she did not saw her father in the house and surprised that she saw his father walking around. Seth's son, Jed visited her and was amazed of his grandfather and ask for help because his half-sister Cookie has a renal disease called Glomerulonephritis and wants to bring him to the healer. Seth did not want him to help because if something bad happens, she will be the one to be blamed. But Jed pleaded so Seth agreed but with a condition that she will not go with them and her parents won't know about she have done. When Seth arrived home, she saw that there was a party going on on her house. She saw her friends and his father was eating meat and drinks alcohol which is bad for his health. His friend Ding, a policeman, asks for Seth's help because he has a skin disease called psoriasis and wants to become healed. Her maid, Alma also came to her because she cannot pass the health examination to go to Dubai because she also has a skin disease on her foot.Three others were also begging for Seth to take them to the healer because they want to be cured too. It was Chona, a woman who suffered Goiter, Greta, a woman who was mumps in her breast and Kakay, a girl who cannot see. They went to the town of the healer and was informed that Manang Elsa, refused to cure people because she was sick. But Seth begged the healer so Manang Elsa let them in and cured them.

After going home,Seth saw her father with a young woman named Kelly dressed as an anime. Seth thinks that her father thinks too childish after he was cured. The next day, everyone was happy because their sickness had gone away except for Cookie who had a fever and was brought to the hospital. Val, Cookie's father and Seth's divorced husband, knew that Seth is the one who brought his daughter to the healer but he was amazed when he saw Cookie well and was brought out of the hospital. During the anniversary of Ding and his wife, Seth saw Chona and she asked her to go to the anniversary but Chona just smiled and walked away. After the anniversary, Seth saw Chona dead after killing herself with a pierced glass in her neck. At the funeral, the husband of Chona told Seth that Chona saw a crow in her dreams before she died. It was like the crow that Seth saw in her house. The people who also got healed saw a crow in their dreams. Seth also realized that she saw Chona yesterday but her husband told that Chona was just in the house. Later on, Seth saw Greta in her house while stretching her long neck so Seth followed her. While Greta was smoking, she saw her doppleganger and got inside of her. She killed her husband but she also killed herself afterwards by tying her neck into a rope. The next day, Seth went on a grocery store and saw Ding walked past her. Seth phoned Ding trying to warn him. Ding is in a raid, and when he opened one of the rooms, his doppelganger got him and he began shooting everyone, one of the police shot him dead.

Meanwhile Alma panicked knowing that she would be the next target. After the horrifying consequences, Seth asked her father if he saw a crow in his dreams but his father thought that he did not see a crow instead he had wet dreams.Seth decided to confront Manang Elsa about this. She went back to the healer to find Manang Elsa already dead after being killed by Dario, the man who fainted and died due to a heart-attack. Manang Elsa unknowingly "cured" the dead, which should not be done because the life that was used to revive him will take away the lives of the people that Manang Elsa cured after him. The people cured after Dario will die by joining the doppleganger and itself and attempt to do suicide. One night Seth was trapped in a traffic jam and startled to see Alma get off the van. Knowing that this is not the real Alma, Seth phoned Alma and warn her that her doppelganger is on its way to her. Alma didn't believe Seth, unit it reached her. The now possessed Alma killed some of her dorm mates and eventually burned herself. Afraid for her daughter's life, Cita (Kakay's mom) brought her to a Chinese temple to be guarded by their relative monks. Seth saw Kakay's doppelganger and warned Cita, however, Kakay was lost during the dragon dance and her doppelganger got into her. Kakay killed the praying monks and committed suicide by jumping off the roof. Seth was being haunted by the people who got killed and blamed her for their death because Seth is the key who brought them to the healer. She also saw Kakay's soul crying to her and Seth took pity on her. Since all of them had died, there is only one left and it is Cookie, her stepdaughter. She took Cookie to her house and put on CCTV cameras to see the doppleganger of Cookie so they will know when it will possess her.To end the curse, Seth went to the jail to see Dario and she decided to bring him a food that is poisoned. Dario told her that he is not the real Dario and he just possessed his body after Manang Elsa cured him. Seth took pity because she could not kill a person so she took the food and threw it away. When she got to the house,she saw the doppleganger of Cookie thinking it already possessed Cookie, killed her by shocking her with a toaster and she vanished away. Seth was brought to the hospital because her arm got stabbed by Cookie's doppleganger with a knife. She saw Cookie alive with Jed and he said that they saw Cookie's doppleganger so they ran away. Thinking that Seth killed Cookie's doppleganger, she let Cookie back in her house. Surprisingly, Cookie saw her doppleganger again in her house so she ran away but her doppleganger run fast and possessed inside of her. The possessed Cookie went to Seth's house and brought her a cake for being thankful to her. Thinking that Cookie will cut the cake, she stabbed Seth's other arm again instead so Seth ran away since she cannot use her both arms to fight.Jed went to the house and took Cookie away but Jed's doppleganger strangled Seth in her neck. While Dario was saying prayers to the Devil, Melchor, Manang Elsa's husband, shot him three times. On the first shot, Jed's doppleganger disappeared. On the second shot, Cookie fainted and her doppleganger got away. And on the third shot Dario fell on the ground and is already dead. The policemen put their guns to Melchor but he put his gun down because he already killed Dario which he had wanted for revenge for killing his wife. Seth, Jed and Cookie is now saved from the curse. They woke up Cookie to see if she is still alive and Cookie surprisingly opened her eyes.

The movie suffers from a very common horror movie complaint. The characters are entirely too passive about serious problems. The characters figure out the connection between violent events and the healing quickly enough, but it takes them forever to do anything about it. Movies tend to need characters to be active, trying to solve their problems with whatever resources are available to them. Having said that, the movie does a great job of surrounding the central conflict with interesting little details. There’s a funny, subversive edge to the way the community is written, and a genuinely crushing dilemma complicating the eventual solution. 

The film isn’t afraid to get a little goofy, offsetting the violence and darkness with tinges of humor. What could’ve been generic horror movie stuff is enlivened by a slight satirical bent that takes to task the very concept of healing. And the film thrives on its relationships, building real stakes out of few well-placed lines of dialogue. The production looks quite accomplished, and the film makes room for quite a few stylistic touches. Most noticeably, the film marks its movements by having the characters dress in the same color. It’s not entirely clear what the point of it is, but it does make the film more visually interesting. 

The Healing could a little tighter. The characters spend too much time not doing anything about their predicament, which makes it feel like they’re just courting danger. But if one can overlook that little wrinkle, the movie is just a whole lot of fun. It has an inspired sense of self, a personality beyond what we’ve come to expect in every horror feature.