Cinema One Originals 2018 | Hospicio

Hospicio is the sequel to 2006's Numbalikdiwa, a film about a man who tries to resurrect the woman he loves with disastrous results. You don't need to see Numbalikdiwa to appreciate Hospicio, as it explains itself near the middle of the film, though it helps.

When Leslie (Loisa Andalio) is taken to a strange care facility, things can't get any more confusing: the rehailitation sessions are more chaotic than helpful, and her fellow patients are varied in their brokenness. There also seems to be divisions along generational lines: the older patients treat the facility like a home for the aged, while the younger crowd has a more varied range of dysfunctions, where criminal histories and mental disabilities mix and mingle: nymphomaniacs, kleptomaniacs and catatonic patients with depression. 

The film also seems to be trying to depict the generational divide we have in our own society. The older generation are self assured and self righteous, forcing what they think is the best for the younger generation, even though they serve their own self interests. Meanwhile the younger generation only want to live their lives in freedom in terms of sexual identity, moral standards and so on. It addresses whether the systems we have to rehabilitate serve only to incarcerate and trap people within the system instead.

The film's major failing, unfortunately, stems from its adherence to genre. It ultimately overwhelms the messages it is trying to impart. As a horror film, Hospicio falls apart. It relies too much on jump scares, neglecting to create an atmosphere for its horror. While jump scares are fine in controlled doses, after experiencing ten jump scares in a row, it's more annoying than terrifying. The film is also guilty of unintentional comedy, especially near the end when people start dying. That's kind of disappointing, considering that the film does have some promise.

Hospicio is a film with an identity crisis. If it's a metaphor or allegory for something, whatever it was trying to say has been drowned in the noise of its ill-timed jump scares and ineffective horror.