October 30, 2024
One night, there were eight people riding on the last trip of the MMR train. They were: popular IG artist Angel (Bea Binene), whitening soap sales agent Tina (Katya Santos) and her daughter Belle (Dani Zee), boxing coach Tom (Mark Anthony Fernandez), film students Alvin (Keann Johnson), his girlfriend Drea (Yumi Garcia) and his best friend Martin (Andre Yllana), and department store salesgirl Michelle (Louise delos Reyes).
A creepy guy came on the train at one stop and sat beside Michelle. When she got nervous and moved to the next train car, the guy stood up and followed her. Seeing that that car was completely empty, the guy accosted Michelle and sexually assaulted her. The poor girl was screaming for help the whole time, but everyone in the next car were paralyzed with fear. No one dared to step up and rescue Michelle from her dire plight.
This was one of the eight horror films (only two Filipino films) included in the Halloween-themed "Sine Sindak" film festival in various SM mall cinemas. Each film in the festival only costs P150 per ticket, but a viewer can watch more than one film with a day pass that costs only P300 each. The only disadvantage is that each film only gets shown once a day, so the film you want to see may not be showing when you have the free time.
Writer Juvy Galamiton chose to go the common "vengeful ghost" route here, as the wrathful spirit of Michelle haunted the seven people to failed to come to her aid that night. Like the usual trope, the cowardly seven were picked off to die one by one. It was not clear why Michelle was punishing some people more severely than others. It was not clear why the most shocking and gory death scene was given to the least guilty of them all.
To add more horror scenes, Angel was given a terrifying experience in her past which can ruin anybody's childhood. Presently, she was also battling her fears if she should help a neighbor girl Abi (Tep Tep Pineda) being abused by her parents. Tom was too permissive on his spoiled son Nico (CJ Barinaga) and his addict boxer Raymond (RS Magtaan), both of which led to violent outcomes, but he was not given much of a backstory to flesh out his personality.
Bea Binene did her best to liven up her scenes as the lead character Angel. Katya Santos played comic relief at first, but what Tina was doing was not really funny. Yumi Garcia and Keann Johnson were effectively over-the-top as Drea and Alvin, which begged the question why the one left behind to help Angel had to be Andre Yllana's Martin. Yllana's unfortunate portrayal of Miguel was boring and lifeless, with his face remaining numbingly flat.
Cult director Roman Perez, Jr. had shots on the train where the background looked as if there were evil eyes, creating an atmosphere of eerie excitement. Perez was very imaginative in how he composed his shots during the climactic third act, but those familiar with the Caloocan City Hall complex will recognize where those scenes were shot. To evoke real-life horror of its premise, Perez mixed in CCTV footage of ongoing crimes where no one helped. 6/10.
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