VivaMax: Review of TILILING: Into the Insane

March 5, 2021

Three nurses interns went on duty at the Home of the Healing Heart, a mental institution with 50 patients, under the care of head nurse, Miss Divina (Cai Cortez), bedecked in her green velvet gown. The three were assigned patients in the Solitary Alley, which had the most unique patients with no signs of improvement despite advanced therapy and medications. If they would be able to diagnose their patients correctly, they will pass their course. 

Maricel (Candy Pangilinan), 38, had already been an nurse intern for 7 years, but she still could not pass her practical exams to graduate. Her patient was Socorro (Gina Pareno), an elderly woman who was sexually-abused during the Japanese times. Socorro constantly knocked on doors, calling out the name of her husband Felipe and looking for her lost child.

Jessa (Yumi Lacsamana), 25, was an obsessive-compulsive sort, who labels her underwear with the days of the week. Her patient was Peter Pan (Baron Geisler), who suffered child abuse under his drug addict father (Rex Cortez). Since he had the mentality of a child obsessed with Peter Pan, Jessa pretended to be Tinkerbell to get him to talk.

Espie (Donnalyn Bartolome) 25, was the ambitious and selfish sort, one who had it easy all her life. Ironically, a clean freak like her got assigned Bernie (Chad Kinis) an angry man who played with his feces. After they ran out of crap to throw at each other, she was able to get Bernie to admit about his shady job and how he caused the death of his parents.

That night, the guard had a heart attack while chomping on his chicharon midnight snack, and hit a switch that released all the inmates out of their cells and locked down the main gates. This led to pandemonium within the institution premises. However, the three poor intern nurses still had to figure their patients in order to pass.

The acting prowess of Pareno, Geisler and Kinis playing difficult, unstable patients could be said to be the main highlight of this project. Each were given emotionally-heavy monologues to deliver which detailing the ordeals they experienced which messed up their minds so much that led to their confinement in this mental institution. Each actor took their respective challenge head on to deliver soul-bearing performances. 

Writer-director Darryl Yap already stirred controversy when its poster showing the mentally-disturbed "patients" with their mouths open and tongues out. This, the film explained, was how nurses made sure the patient swallowed their medication. However, likely to court more controversy was Yap's decision of having nurses Jessa and Espie unnecessarily run around among the patients only in their brassieres and panties for a good 2/3 of the film. 

The serious message Yap wanted to convey was summarized by the voice-over narration during the last final montage sequences. The rest of the film, however, Yap subjected his viewers to crazy antics of the patients and the nurses, the creepy haunted house vibe of the set, and his rapid-flashing style of rewinding and fast-forwarding of scenes in time. This is a noisy, profane, triggering film, definitely not for viewers with a sensitive constitution. 2/10.