Dementia

Perci Intalan's Dementia is a curious creature. It's part psychological thriller, part horror film... at first. But during the last few or so minutes it transforms into something that makes the viewer re-think what they have just watched.

Nora Aunor is Mara Fabre, a former caretaker who is suffering from dementia. To take care of her, her cousin (Bing Loyzaga) and her family decides to bring her to her old home in Batanes to slow the process of the illness. However, strange things begin to happen to Mara, things that are connected with events and people from Mara's past. Soon, these strange things begin to affect everyone else as well.

Looking at the film superficially, Nora Aunor doesn't seem to be given much to do with her role, with her staring into space for most of the film, haunted by some distant memory or other. But that is far from the reality of the situation - Mara's character is the very center of this film. During the film itself, we only get a few tidbits about the person Mara used to be. The one person who can tell us about this is hidden behind multiple layers of lost memories... and probably something more sinister. The last few minutes, which give us a look into the Mara that was, makes us rethink the whole movie.

That narrative decision is a bit problematic as we have so little time to process this new information (short of rewatching the film, which if this decision is done deliberately admittedly is a genius move.) At a deeper level, Dementia asks us to look at Mara's character with this paradigm shift in mind. At the same time, it makes her final decision even harder to understand.

The movie is submerged in an atmosphere of isolation and dread, helped immensely by excellent production design and cinematography.. Unlike recent horror productions which rely on CGI and effects, Dementia is most effective in the scenes where the horrifying element is merely implied by visual or audio cues. The vast lush landscapes of Batanes add to the atmosphere of isolation, which in this movie is absolutely everything.

Although the film centers storywise with Mara, her niece Rachel (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) fills out most of the speaking roles. And these scenes are some of the film's weakest - there is a quasi-romantic subplot with one of the locals, a number of conversations with American friends that amount to setting up one scene, and a possession angle that I didn't really see as necessary. I'd rather have seen more Nora, and learn more about her character.

Dementia is an okay film that I recommend seeing more than once, just to see the nuances in Nora Aunor's acting after the revelation at the end. As a horror film it is pretty run of the mill, but as a psychological film it is quite effective.