“The Healing” is not for the faint-hearted moviegoers say. You can never go wrong with adding a Chito S. Roño film to your Halloween binge-watch list!
Just in time for your Halloween movie marathon, Star Cinema's YouTube account is now offering free streaming of the 2012 horror film "The Healing." If you haven't seen the movie yet, it centers on a faith healer played by Vilma Santos who finds herself besieged by many patients after learning of her exceptional healing abilities. But after receiving the treatment they sought, they endure a weird series of mishaps and fatalities.
Vilma portrays Seth, a lady who operates a boarding house in a downtown neighborhood for middle-class people. A faith healer named Elsa successfully cures her father Odong (Robert Arevalo) for his post-stroke condition (Daria Ramirez). As a response, five of Seth's friends (and neighbors) persuade her to bring them to Elsa so they can all undergo treatment for their varied medical conditions. Jed (Martin del Rosario), Seth's son, also accompanies Cookie (Kim Chiu), his half-sister, in order to treat her kidney failure.
Each individual Elisa heals passes away after the healing day under weird and violent circumstances, each one stranger than the previous. Before each death, Seth would be visited by a crow and a puzzling vision of her friend’s doppelganger. Before everyone in the gang perishes, she must work against the time to discover why this is occurring and put a stop to it.
What we think normally with this kind of plot is after the first character dies, we already know how the story would go. Yet, the suspense you feel as you watch grows, but this is in anticipation of the gory way the next character will die, not because you do not know what will happen next. To Roño’s credit, each “death scene” would top the last one as far as gore and blood are concerned.
It has a cohesive plot. Editing works its way. The narration gets right to the point. You flinch from your seat at the shocks, the surprises, and the mounting suspense as the plot becomes more complex. You must keep your eyes glued to the screen in order to see all of the information, foreshadowing, and conflict resolution. You can tell the movie is unusual from the striking opening credits to the alternate theme colors of blue, red, yellow, and white. The group acting is reminiscent of detective films like Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, where Roño is able to bring out the best in each actor or actress, no matter how tiny the role, whether it be in a group or alone.
The cast did well, too.
Vilma Santos is Vilma Santos. She will always be bigger than her roles. This is not to say that she did not perform well; she did. But, watching her, you see Vilma more than Seth — too strong to ignore. Despite being given second billing, Kim Chiu was hardly ever seen on screen. She would have performed better if she had given her role more vigor as she does with all of her performances. Martin del Rosario, who I didn't know before this movie, did an excellent job as Jed in a pivotal position. I'm not sure why Ynez Veneracion had to expose her right boob in a scene; perhaps it was for nostalgic reasons.
The suspense onscreen was increased by Mr. Roño's use of several clearly laid out and executed camera angles. The clothing and costumes worn by the on-screen characters were coordinated in color. I struggled to understand why a particular hue was picked for a scene's "theme" in "The Healing," though. The movie made extensive use of music and typical scare techniques. Thankfully, this one did not contain a creature like Sadako.
Direct Chito Roño has found his mojo in making effective horror flicks. After “Feng Shui,” which was truly scary, his next works like “Sukob,” “T2” and “Bulong” were quite inferior. He's now back to his best work in "The Healing," a thriller that actually works. A cursed Bagua in "Feng Shui" set off a terrible sequence of occurrences. This time, the deaths occur after Vilma Santos' father (Robert Arevalo), who is unwell, is taken to a faith healer by Seth, an insurance executive (Daria Ramirez).
Such vistas, photography, and overall presentation feels on par with those of its contemporaries, despite the script's fairly shoddy construction. It's just unfortunate that the screenplay underutilized its own intriguing subject. While some insight into the strange push-pull of Healers and the nation's strong Catholic tradition is provided. The Healing, however, is currently a curiosity for the observant viewer or, potentially, a seed from which better blockbusters will ultimately grow.
Overall, “The Healing” is okay.
It is similar to other horror films in the way the friends of the lead female character are dying around her and it is up to her to break the curse. If it was Kris Aquino who played Seth instead of Vilma Santos, the movie would just be “Feng Shui” all over again.
Some things are just never meant to happen. JPIAns, Are you willing to get cured too?
Comments