Winner for Best Actress for Judy Ann Santos in the recent Metro Manila Film Festival, “Espantaho” is a film that aims to please the crowds by combining two fan-favorite genres, family drama and horror. Let us see how Chito S. Rono fared.
When Monet returns to her family’s ancestral home for the nine-day prayer vigil (pasiyam) after her father Pabling’s passing, she is unprepared for the storm of conflict and terror about to descend. With her overbearing mother Rosa micromanaging her every move and her husband Jack leaving for an errand, Monet struggles to balance her grief, her role as a mother, and her own bouts of epileptic seizures. The tension escalates with the arrival of Adele, Pabling’s legal wife, and her children Andie and Roy, who are determined to claim their share of the family’s land and ancestral house, leaving Monet at risk of losing everything.
But as family feuds simmer, a darker force emerges. Jack’s mysterious painting—depicting a scarecrow and an ominous, shadowy figure—unleashes a malevolent presence that begins to wreak havoc. With secrets unraveling and supernatural terror mounting, the family must confront their past and unite against an evil that threatens to consume them all.
Allow me to start with the negative. The mixture of family drama and horror does not work particularly well here, with the transitions between the two being awkward in a way that suggests that the latter was forcefully injected into a narrative that would work much better if it was solely of the former category. Some issues with the pacing also exist in the same path, some plot holes also appear from time to time, while there are too many characters appearing and events happening for a film of 90 minutes. Lastly, the accusation towards men, the overwhelming majority of which in the film are painted in the darkest colors, does go a bit too far in the overall ‘girl-power’ approach here.
This however does not mean that the movie is without merits, on the contrary. For starters, the way the after-death rituals of Pampanga are presented and connected with the horror aspect of the movie is quite impressive to watch, with the presence of many women at the same time working particularly well in that department. Furthermore, Neil Daza’s cinematography in combination with the excellent coloring in the film result in a series of images that are quite pleasant to the eye, with the way the house and the painting are implemented, along with the ‘plagues” that appear throughout definitely staying on the mind of any viewer.
Most of all, however, the movie benefits from the majestic performances of the three main protagonists. Judy Ann Santos as Monet highlights a quite layered character with gusto, with the different ways she interacts with the people around her, always, though, in the role of the victim, being impressively presented. Loran Tolentino as Rosa is equally good in her micromanaging of her daughter and her rage against Adele, whom Chanda Romero depicts in equally convincing fashion, particularly in its relatively calm, but definitely boiling rage and bitterness. The scenes when the three women interact are the highlights of the movie, in the definitely best aspect of “Espantaho”.
As it becomes obvious, “Espantaho” is a mixed bag of a film, but I feel that in the end, and particularly for mainstream audience, the chemistry and charisma of the three leads plus the job done in the visuals allows it to end up on the positive side
