Filipino Reviews Reviews

Film Review: Deleter (2022) by Mikhail Red

"It's ok to break down occasionally"

After sweeping Metro Manila Film Festival awards with 7 wins, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, “”, 's first collaboration with Viva, went on to become one of the highest grossing films during the run of the festival.

Lyra works for an online content moderation company, where employees, known as deleters, deal with graphic content before it reaches online platforms, usually in an effort to prevent extreme sex and violence from getting to the screens of users. It seems, however, that the company is shady on a number of levels, as we watch employees staying in a bunkhouse, and Lyra receiving “calming pills” from her boss Simon, which justify how unfazed she is by the content she has to watch everyday. Things take a turn for the much worse when Eileen, a colleague of hers commits suicide, which gradually starts bringing up both Lyra's traumatic past and the actual nature of Simon, and subsequently, of the company. As pressure piles up on Lyra, the only one able to help her is Jace, a young man who works in the same building and seems to like her. 

Probably having studied some of the masters of J-horror who have dealt with similar concepts, and particularly Hideo Nakata (as in “Ring) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (as in “Pulse), Mikhail Red shoots a horror movie with intense social extensions, that deals mostly with two topics. The first one is the penetration of the internet in our lives, which, as portrayed in the film, has not only affected them significantly, but currently even dictates them, particularly if one considers how many people work in jobs associated with the web. The second topic is the exploitation of workers by many companies at various levels, starting from overworking and even ending with workplace harassment. 

Check the interview with Mikhail Red

Although Red paints the aforementioned concepts in the darkest colors, the movie is by no means a social drama, since the horror/thriller premises, and particularly an atmosphere of angst, uncertainty and disorientation are present here from the very beginning. Lyra's apathy, the lack of any significant impact in the company after the suicide, and the “weird” behaviour of Simon all point towards the same direction. Red gradually reveals what is really happening through flashbacks that are connected to the new discoveries Lyra makes, while also shedding light to her past and the reasons for her behavior. Lastly, a supernatural/nightmarish aspect is also embedded in the movie eventually, which allows for both some jump scares and some gore, adding even more to the horrific aspect here. 

The combination of social commentary and horror elements works well, although it would be difficult to say that Red has complete control over both, since, particularly the script, seems to be somewhat far-fetched when one factors everything that is taking place in the story together. The overall atmosphere, however, does not allow this issue to become significant, and in combination with Nikolas Red's editing, which picks up the pace on the right moments, results in a movie that is quite entertaining to watch. Even more so, since at 93 minutes, it definitely does not overextend its welcome. The same applies to Ian Alexander Guevara's relatively polished cinematography, which shines in particular in the transformation of the office to a truly suffocating and horrific setting. The somewhat avant-garde ending seems a bit disconnected, stylistically at least, but again, not to a point to significantly harm the movie. 

Lastly, gorgeous as Lyra is quite convincing in both her detachment and her eventual terror and resolve, even though she does not move completely away from TV-acting on occasion. as Simon is an excellent villain, while Louise Delos Reyes steals the show on occasion as Aileen. 

“Deleter” can be said that it missed some opportunities, both to be more pointed in its remarks and more horrific (brutal if you prefer) in its atmosphere, but the combination of its individual elements is quite appealing, resulting in a film that is easy to watch and entertaining from beginning to end. 

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

>