A far more engrossing horror film

Film Review: Segunda Mano

MANILA, Philippines - Segunda Mano is a far more credible horror film than the last Kris Aquino-starrer we saw last year.

The story is solid and more plausible, the direction by Joyce Bernal keeps you glued to the story and it has its share of scary moments that elicits more screams than laughter.

With a good story and a competent director, Segunda Mano is off to a good start in its first 20 minutes and in the first hour, you get to realize it has a good cast as well.

Helen Gamboa as Aquino’s mother remains the sensitive actress that she is, while Angelica Panganiban as the wayward soul in search of justice projects a scary look with those eyes that project youthful innocence in one moment then passion and perdition on the other. Her looks as she is shown on her watery state is a hair-raising experience.

For once, Dingdong Dantes delivers a solid performance that is far from the “kilig” school of acting that he is often associated with. The good looks finally metamorphose into a vicious and vulnerable profile. For one who has witnessed adultery as a child, the character portrayed by Dantes gives us a far more chilling characterization worthy of an acting award.

With her title as Horror Queen, Aquino often has the unnecessary burden of living up to it. With so many things she is engrossed with, it is not all the time that she delivers.

But in Segunda Mano, Aquino looks more spontaneous and it is refreshing to see her project her role not as commercial endorser but as an honest-to-goodness character in a horror film. As Mariel Domingo who finds love while haunted by the death of a younger sister, Aquino lends her part a credibility that one did not see in her last horror film.

Here, she attacks her part with more poignant coloring and it jibes with her ensemble acting with Dantes and Gamboa.

Now you see when a good story lands in the lap of a good director who finds a good cast who lives up to the genre without conscious effort.

You can easily see when a horror film fails when the audiences laugh at the horror scenes and mimic the screams while leaving the theater.

But Segunda Mano manages to preserve the chill down one’s spine as the characters live up to their parts.

As it is, Segunda Mano deserves the “A” rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board.