The long wait for The Echo

For someone who is often disappointed with Hollywood remakes of Asian horror films, I can say that The Echo is better than the original version, Sigaw. Director Yam Laranas tells a slightly different version of the story—the protagonist is an ex-convict trying to pick up the pieces of his life; the venue is his mother’s old apartment building, in which she died of starvation after mysteriously refusing to come out for weeks—with a better budget.

I didn’t watch Yam Laranas’ Sigaw on the big screen. If I’m not mistaken, I was disillusioned with Filipino horror films at the time. Few were original and fewer were those that tapped into our rich mythical lore for what is truly and so naturally horrifying for us. But when I finally caught Sigaw on CinemaOne one dark and solitary evening, with the eerie film being interrupted by one commercial too many, I regretted not having caught it on the big screen.

So, when I heard that Sigaw was going to be remade in Hollywood, with Jesse Bradford starring in it, Iza Calzado reprising her role as the battered wife of a cop, and Yam still directing, I began a mental countdown to when it would be released to both international and local theaters. The wait seemed to last forever. And, last time I checked, many people were still waiting!

Unfortunately for Yam, Iza, and a lot of other people who were pegging their Hollywood dream on their success, The Echo, which was officially released in 2008, the film went straight to DVD.  While it was shown in many different international venues, it just wasn’t picked up by a major distributor.

I was sure that The Echo wouldn’t have that problem here. And it didn’t. Still, it ran into some other issues, which have delayed the screening yet again. Of course, this being Halloween month, and November being the month of the dead, the timing would still be good. Yam, however, has another horror film set for a late October release, Patient X.

Oh well. Thank goodness for premieres.

For someone who is often disappointed with Hollywood remakes of Asian horror films, I can say that The Echo is better than the original version. Yam tells a slightly different version of the story—the protagonist is an ex-convict trying to pick up the pieces of his life; the venue is his mother’s old apartment building, in which she died of starvation after mysteriously refusing to come out for weeks—with a better budget.

Yam is able to go all out with his skill in narrating a sinister tale of a haunted old building with light and dark and well-composed silence. The sound effects are minimal, as are the in-your-face ghostly appearances, but each and every scene sustains the suspense and one just can’t help but watch the screen with a creeping feeling dread. The pace may be slow, but the fear is solid. This more than makes up for the all-too familiar grayish Asian horror images, which even The Echo couldn’t escape.

While The Echo may not have become as big as the remakes of The Ring or The Grudge, Yam and Iza did nothing less than stellar work, proving that it is a worthy aspiration for Filipino films, even the non-indie ones, to aim for international success. We have the talent, even in the mainstream; we shouldn’t have any excuse.