The story revolves around the story of Mabel Domingo (Kris Aquino), the owner of an high-end antique shop who is struggling to move on from a tragic accident that caused her sister's death and always thought that her mother blames her for it, and meets a guy Ivan Galvez (Dingdong Dantes), an architect who seemed to only wants to find the perfect partner for him and a mother for his daughter Angel as his ex-wife apparently cheated on her and left them. Since Ivan proposed, Mabel started to be haunted by ghost who seems to kill everyone that helps Mabel. Towards the end, a very unexpected twist happened.
Eventually, the revelation was made when Mabel found out that her sister and Ivan's ex-wife, Mariela Galvez (Angelica Panganiban) is the same person and was killed by Ivan himself who turned out to be a psychotic person also haunted by his past experiences as a young boy.
My Insights
The story was something new when we talk about horror films. It has deeper story line than others and was able to really go through each character's pasts and explained every factors why they are the way they are. I personally think, that story wise, the movie has indeed surprised viewers of Philippine horror films and has gone beyond shallow and simpler stories. The scenes were plotted very accordingly to really illustrate and guide the viewers towards the end and resolution of the film. I also liked how they started the film, giving little glimpse to each major characters and important key to the story. However, it is still not that complicated that it may come to the point that it would be unpredictable. Because, towards the end i have already started to guess what is what and who is who. But then, I still think that it does a very good job misleading the viewers to its conclusion.
However,
I can really say that I was very disappointed when it comes to the "scare" factor of it all. Giving itself a horror-thriller genre, I think they did not lived up to it. There were gulat factors but then i found myself irritably bored when almost all along the film i still didn't found any scary factors as i was expecting. Worse, I felt like i was eventually watching a drama/romance/comedy film rather than a horror one. Sure, they have really managed to establish a very nice story but then, without that scare factor, viewers will eventually lose greater interest to the rest of the story and will really be disappointed after the film, as they maybe did not get what they wanted in the first place, and that is to be scared. I thought that they did not exert that much of an effort into the horror factor of it all. Which is really a downside of it. For me that is.
When it comes to the acting, well, Ms. Kris Aquino, for awhile convinced me that she was really a very reserved girl, given that we all know her for being tactless, she have successfully portrayed a simple girl in the movie. However, i just cant stop myself from giggling every time she tries to act scared and surprised with the apparition of the ghosts. She's good at drama but not really that convincing when she needs to act scared.
Dingdong Dantes somehow did portray to be psychotic though he was not as scary as a psychotic person should be.
Unexpetedly, I was happy with how Bangs Garcia, who played the BFF of Kris Aquino, acted her role. For me it was so natural and really is living up to her character's personality.
I, with all negative and positive comments i have made in this film, would really commend its director Joyce Bernal for venturing in horror film for the first time. If my little research wasn't wrong, she made plenty of romance and comedy films and Segunda Mano is her first horror-thriller one. With this, i think she had given more life and story to horror films and not only gulat factors and all. Malay natin sa susunod na mga horror films, machallenge na yung mga batikang direktor ng Filipino horror films na magisip din ng mas malawak na istorya at given na they are good na at giving more takot, mapaghalo na nila ng mas balanse ang mga future Filipino horror films, diba? Malay natin.
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