Kuwaresma (spoilers)

Note: major spoilers for Kuwaresma.

Set in the year 1985, Kuwaresma follows Luis (Kent Gonzales) as he returns to his home in Baguio to attend the funeral of his recently deceased sister. It becomes clear that something is not quite right in the house, which leads to all sorts of complications. Luis' dad, Arturo, is a controlling, hypermasculine soldier who believes in survival of the fittest, while his doctor mom is subservient to her husband's whims.

There's no question that Kuwaresma creates an interesting atmosphere. Things are off-kilter at just the right amounts and the weirdness is unique compared to other contemporary horror films. Thankfully, the film decides not to rely on cliched horror tropes to deliver its scares (at least, not too much). Like most of Erik Matti's recent films, the film can also be enjoyed at multiple levels, and there's a decent amount of subtext going on.

While the film does do a number of really good things that work on their own, when working together as parts of a greater whole the results are not as effective. Kuwaresma tries to juggle several things at once, and each of those little things affect the others in negative ways. 

The film can be seen as a critique of toxic masculinity, but the demonic possession angle of the film dilutes that message, because now the reason for all the evil acts in the film are can be blamed on a demon, and not solely on the man and the evil built into his character. The film tries to champion the power of a woman, but at the same time the film also conveys the message that when good people do nothing, evil flourishes, inadvertently putting some blame on the woman in what is an obviously abusive relationship. In its construction, the film tries to espouse these messages without thinking too much of the history and power structures that created this situation in the first place.

In its most meaningful twist, it is revealed that Luis is a woman all along, and that his choice to become a man stems from his father's actions, but the suspension of disbelief is too hard to maintain. It's strange to think that Luis would just conveniently forget that he doesn't have a penis, especially every time he goes to the bathroom. How would he take a piss in comfort rooms? Would he mess up his pants trying to piss standing up? And while gender reassignment surgeries were available as early as the sixties, it wasn't widely available in the Philippines (and it still isn't), and there is no indication that any surgery ever happened. It could have been a powerful statement on how sexual identity is sometimes forced upon us by others, but it doesn't stick the landing.

Kuwaresma is not a bad film per se, but it ends up being a victim of putting too much on its plate. While it is entertaining on its own, it collapses under its own complexity and that ultimately detracts from the overall experience.