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Wag Kang
Lilingon consists of two short ghost stories;
Uyayi tells the story of Melissa, a nurse who works
at a hospital where the patients have been dropping
like flies as of recently. Could ghosts be behind
these mysterious deaths? The second story, Salamin,
revolves around Angel and her mother and sister.
They have just moved into a new house and it seems
as if things are finally looking up for the family
of three... until Angel decides to ask an old mirror
to show her the future.
It's pretty rare with horror anthologies consisting
of only two short stories and I have to wonder why
because it's really a quite clever concept. In
anthologies consisting of three or more movies, the
stories usually either feel too short or the movie
becomes too long. 90 minutes is just enough time to
tell two shorter horror stories without rushing
anything so I don't know why this isn't used more
often (well, we do have Grindhouse coming up though).
Anyway, Wag Kang Lilingon consists of two mediocre
and very generic ghost stories, the first of which
revolves around a nurse called Melissa and her
boyfriend James. Recently, the patients at Melissa's
hospital have been dying mysteriously in their sleep
and since James works for a local newspaper, he
decides to check in at the hospital to investigate
further into the matter. In this story we have
everything from The Ring-like videos to predictable
twists, nothing's really new in here. BUT, for a
Filipino film, I have to say that it is quite
inventive. It dares to show a little blood and the
twist is up to par with Hollywood standards, something
which is unusual to find in pinoy horror movies.
The second story is a little longer and far more
intriguing (even if just as generic). This is a
classic haunted house movie where a family of three
moves into an old house since the rent is so cheap,
only to discover that it's haunted by evil spirits.
We never really get an explanation as to why the
spirits are evil or want to harm them so the twist
in this story makes little sense - and again, it's
very predictable. It's interesting enough to keep
you going though. So what made me give this mediocre
Pinoy horror flick a rating of three? The answer:
the final twist ending!
Pinoy horror flicks are known to be generic and dull
and we've all ready been treated with two predictable
twists in this movie, but the final ending that ties
the two stories together is surprisingly clever and
actually blew me away. I didn't see it coming at all,
and it made it all worth while. Overall, Wag Kang
Lilingon isn't anything out of the ordinary but it's
one of the better Pinoy horror films that I've seen.
It actually felt as if they tried to bring something
new to the table with this one and were unaware of
the fact that the first two twists had all ready been
used in countless other horror films.
Ultimately, I can definitely recommend this to my
Filipino visitors (I'm pretty sure I don't have many
of those but still...) and for the rest of you; you
don't have to hunt this one down but if you come
across it, you might want to check it out. It's an
average ghost movie with a killer ending - well, at
least I thought so. Worth checking out.
Some blood here and there, not a lot but it's not
often you find any blood at all in Pinoy movies.
The piano music sounded crisp and beautiful, did
the trick and created a nice atmosphere.
Perhaps not the most original of ghost movies but at
least it felt as if they tried this time. Wag Kang
Lilingon is one of the better Pinoy horror movies
that I've seen and it's definitely worth a watch if
you come across it some time. Don't expect anything
special though, but the ending makes it all worth while.
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