‘Guni-Guni’ nakakatakot, nakakagulat, pero… LOVI POE saved “Guni-Guni”.
Dumating sa premiere night ng “Guni-Guni” si Jake Cuenca together with Alex Castro sa SM Megamall cinema 3 last Tuesday night.
Ang patawa sa kanya ng mga press, confirmation daw ito na silang dalawa na talaga ni Lovi. Privately though, iisa ang tanong ng mga press among themselves: is the relationship of Jake and Lovi, kung totoo na nga, is strong enough para ipapanood ni Lovi ang love scene nila ng partner niya sa movie na si Benjamin Alves.
Sa dormitoryo na paga-aari ni Jaime Fabregas, things are happening. Ang boarder na si Mylene (Lovi), napakaraming sikreto.
Ang isa pang boarder at classmate sa medical course na si Joanna (Empress), nakakaramdam ng patay; ang matandang lasengga na si Rosario (Gina Alajar), hindi maka get over sa pagkamatay ng kanyang anak (Guji Lorenzana) more than a decade ago.
Ang batang autistic na si JJ (Ryan Pasigan), nakakakita rin ng multo.
Ang yaya nito who turns out tiyahin pala na si Vanjie (Julia Clarete), may pagnasasa sa brother in law nitong si Eddie (Neil Ryan Sese).
Ang biglang sulpot na boarder na si Alicia (Ria Garcia), buntis ng four months at gustong magpa-abort sa mga medical students sa dormitory.
Then, things start happening and people starts dying seemingly without reason. The solution, an apology to the crime that happened 30years ago.
There are enough gulat factor sa pelikula. Sobrang dami, umuulit nga ang gimmick dahil more than 10 times yatang nanaginip at nabangungot si Lovi.
Other horror elements are incorporated kahit maling-mali like the idea of doppelganger.
So kung sigaw factor ang hanap n’yo at mababaw ang fear factor n’yo, titili kayo rito.
We don’t know anything about that too fake eyes pero baka statement ito ng direktor.
But the saving grace of the movie is the acting of the cast especially kay Lovi. We always admire Lovi for her acting ability.
She can really act.
In “Guni-Guni”, she was given the chance to act two different personalities and her prowess was shown to the max nang ipinakita ang dalawang Lovi in one scene and two different style of acting were acted out by Lovi alam mong dalawang personality ang pinapanood mo, hindi just Lovi 1 and Lovi 2.
It’s about time na magsimula nang maghakot ng acting awards si Lovi.
Hindi man sa mga horror movies she’s fond of doing these days but in her other ventures like her indie mov ies.
Her acting is fully supported by the cast naman.
Benjamin acts naturally which is good. Wala kaming narinig na accent and in their love scene ni Lovi, mas daring siya kaysa kay Lovi.
Empress is also capable. Hindi siya nakipagsapawan kay Lovi.
Two scene stealers Ms. Gina and Julia know how to compliment the heaviness of the scene so very welcome ang kanilang over the top acting nila.
So what’s wrong with the movie? The story telling. Multi-awarded editor Tara Illenberger should have given her germ of an idea to a scriptwriter at iba na lang ang pinasulat niya so she can concentrate both in editing and directing.
From logic to dialogue, dusa ang “Guni-Guni”.
Worse, she doesn’t know what to do with the material: drama ba ito na may katatakutan or horror na may drama? Fifty percent of the movie, drama and the movie is being billed as a horror fare.
Look at the logic of the movie – spoiler alert kami ng konti – the crime happened 30 years ago. Thirty years later, gumaganti ang biktima sa mga taong walang kinalaman at all sa krimen magtatanong ka why now, why them. Mga hamak na bed spacers lang ito 30 years ago, bakit mo sila gagantihan? What triggers the victim’s vengeance? At take note, pumatay ito ng inang nami-miss ang anak na nag-suicide at isang yayang pumatay ng kapatid pero ang babaeng nagpa-abort – the victim was aborted – nakaligtas. Then the dialogues. Fifties and archaic words like “nakakabagabag” are used in between full English dialogues. Lovi did this. Ces Quesada, Jaime’s wife, did this several times. Bad dialogue turns us off baka kami magsulat niyan katakot-takot na mura ang aabutin namin sa head writer namin. The twist ending too has the originality of…give us a week and we will figure one explanation for this. If you’re a fan of Lovi, go watch this as this Lovi again did not fail to deliver. Kung may oras kayo para sumigaw here and there kahit walang logic ang kuwento, go watch this. We have to admit, napakahirap magsulat ng horror movie. It’s one of the hardest craft so in a way, we will admire Tara for trying, C for effort nga lang. Kung ibinigay niya nga ito sa mga bisahang manakot, baka mas lalong nakakatakot ang movie but then, nagsisigawan naman ang audience sa premiere so baka okay na rin ito and hopefully hindi lang guni-guni ang narinig naming papuri.