January 2, 2025
One night, single mother Lilia Capistrano (Vilma Santos) attended a fancy birthday party held in the mansion of the very wealthy Guilly Vera (Aga Muhlach), who was celebrating his 55th birthday. Introducing herself as Ms. Eva Candelaria, a donor of Vera's foundation, Lilia was able to strike up conversations with several people whom she actually did not know, including Vera's wife Katrina (Mylene Dizon) and their daughter Nicole (Nadine Lustre).
Lilia's presence at the party, uninvited and under cover, was brought about by a heinous crime committed against Lilia's daughter Lily (Gabby Padilla) -- truly a nightmare which could push any parent over the edge. However, Lily was no shrinking violet when it came to getting justice for her child's sad fate. Unlike other mothers who would flee to forget the pain, Lilia wanted to face her daughter's tormentors to demand an eye for an eye.
Fresh from her surprising (for me) Best Actress win for "When I Met You in Tokyo" at last year's MMFF, Miss Vilma Santos is back in her darkest role since "Tagos ng Dugo" (1987) and "Lipa Massacre" (1994). Even at age 71 now, Santos can still pull off playing a mother of a college student. And more than that, this role got her to drive cars, shoot guns, and best of all, attempt to kill goons twice her size. Now that is what you call tenacity as an actor.
Two usually wholesome actors really went way out of their comfort zones here. Aga Muhlach started played the evil Don Guilly with seriously scary sinister vibes. However, he went overboard in the third act, winding up with a caricaturish, inadvertently funny portrayal right at the film's climax. In contrast, Nadine Lustre's Nicole had scenes doing drugs, having sex, cursing like a sailor, but in the end, she had an award-bait acting moment and nailed it.
Dan Villegas comes back as director for the first time since 2018 in a genre as far from his rom-com comfort zone as can be. A crime thriller with melodramatic sensibilities, "Uninvited" could be the most mainstream script of horror writer Dodo Dayao,. The film is good-looking no doubt, but there were big plot holes, too-convenient clues, lucky coincidences, impossible scenarios, and a lack of Lilia's background that made it feel like it could've been done better. 6/10
baba nman score mo tse!
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