No fury like a sorceress scorned

Frasco Mortiz’s The Heiress opens with a mysterious, if not, grisly death of a young man treading the quiet countryside road on his bike on a pale moonless night.

A mysterious figure suddenly appears in the middle of the road. Before he can figure out who she is, his body parts start disintegrating like a marionette gone mad. He screams to high heavens as he feels the excruciating pain. There is no escaping his fate. It seems someone is dragging him back into the forested area and being pulled to his final resting place. The good-looking face of a small-town Lothario (Jomari Angeles) is reduced to a helpless figure howling a distress call in the dead of night.

Direk Frasco’s latest horror output keeps the moviegoers on high-tension wire for a regular dose of screaming moments. They come pretty often you wonder if the film is capable of quiet moments.

There is a lot in the film that will keep you in suspense and indeed you can get lost trying to get back to the thread of the story.

The audience reactions on premiere night showed Filipinos moviegoers just love to be scared and scared they were. I have ever seen a more horrified premiere night audience.

Writer Gina Marisa Tagasa revives the classic mambabarang in the countryside and indeed she is reincarnated in the most horrific way as Aunt Luna played with such terrifying brilliance by Maricel Soriano.

But if there was one thing one thoroughly enjoyed while the audience screamed non-stop, it was the performance of La Soriano.

Her silence has an eerie-like effect and her countenance spoke volume even without dialogue. The eyes, the gaunt face, loving moments with her niece (Janella Salvador) and her volcanic temper. It is the kind of acting some brilliant snatches of which you saw in the teleserye, The General’s Daughter.

Yes, she dominates The Heiress and she sustained the suspense while audience screamed for dear life. Her niece (played with refreshing restraint by Salvador) was a good foil and her final scream indeed sent mass shivers in the moviegoers’ spine.

Direk Frasco knows his material inside and out and knows where the audience’s weaknesses are. He jolts when no one least expected it and indeed, he is capable of showing the grimiest of details while the victims of the sorceress breathed their last in one excruciating moments after another.

Partnering with writer Tagasa, he finds one story where he can wring out the most horrific details Filipino moviegoers just love to watch.

The supporting cast did just as well.

Sunshine Cruz delivers as the tired but hardworking Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) coming to terms with her daughter. She still looks very young which makes her look like the older sister of the niece (Salvador). But then subtle acting becomes her and the result is gratifying.

McCoy de Leon is just right for the part providing the love interest that the film sorely needs to balance all that creepy suspense.

Their appearances are short but remarkable: Angeles as the small-town lover boy and Jane de Leon as the young Luna.

True, the film has got all the fine ingredients to deserve being in the horror genre. Its Grade B rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board is much deserved.

 Produced by Regal Films, The Heiress is now showing in cinemas.