Of all the newer filmmakers over at Vivamax, Roman Perez Jr. is probably one of the most interesting. His Vivamax filmography is characterized by having some fascinating concepts but middling execution. For his Cinemalaya entry Kaluskos, he might have brought along a little too much of that Vivamax filmmaking ethos with him, for better or worse.
Rebecca (or Rebekah if we are to follow the end credits) is in the midst of a separation from her philandering husband. She plans to take her daughter with her to Norway, but she notices a change of behavior in her child and suspects something strange is going on.
On the surface, Kaluskos is a middle of the pack horror film. In the midst of its fellow films at Cinemalaya it feels out of place. I would be the first to welcome more genre films over at Cinemalaya, but I feel over the years the "Cinemalaya film" has developed its own identity. To be honest Kaluskos would feel right at home at Vivamax, and given who is involved in the production I would not be surprised if it ultimately ends up on the streaming platform.
Kaluskos feels derivative because it totally is: it cribs a sequence from a well-known copypasta/reddit short story, and in terms of visuals and plot, it gains inspiration from a ton of horror films both here in Asia and in the west. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though one could argue a lot more could've been done with the material.
The problem with Kaluskos is mainly with its storytelling, both overall and also in its depiction of its female characters. All but one of the main characters of Kaluskos are women, and they are either complicit with monsters, treated as monsters, depicted as monsters, and become monsters. Rebecca's anxiety towards losing her husband and child is valid, but is all but dismissed until it manifests as violence. Her ex husband tries to defend his philandering by referring to his wife's toxicity, but we do not know if that was grounded or if he was just making excuses. The film even frames him as the most reasonable character in the film, in contrast to his ex-wife's increasingly degrading state of mind, perceived by him (and most of the other characters in the film) as hysteria.
That is not all, either: perhaps due to tight filming schedules, constraints in production or just filmmaking habits inherited from the insanely demanding need for content in contemporary Vivamax, the storytelling is inconsistent and downright lazy at times. At one point, Rebecca explains the nature of the movie's monster by reading an internet article, while the actual text of that article is flashed on the screen. For some reason, a woman manages to lift a dead body that weighs around the same as her inside a drum that is as high as her head. And, an attempt to humanize the husband and his paramour comes too little, too late. The spelling of the main character's name is even inconsistent, for crying out loud!
Kaluskos on the surface is a passable horror film buoyed by a noteworthy performance from Colleen Garcia, but falls apart the more you think about it.
I tend to give a lot of leeway to films on the indie festival circuit because of their tight production schedules. For example, 2016's Lando and Bugoy is not a sterling example of technical filmmaking, but it's still charming in its own way. What does disappoint me is if a film that isn't well made affects the message it wants to convey, form influencing content in the worst way.
Batsoy is an unfortunate example of that kind of film. Set during the 80's, in the twilight years of the Marcos dictatorship, Batsoy is about two boys who go around town trying to sell firewood. Through subsequent events we learn that the two have experienced heartbreaking loss, and circumstances beyond their control will make them face such loss again.
The film is infused with a deep sense of nostalgia (both bitter and sweet) to a life that no longer exists. Much like director Ronald Batallones' previews feature Excuse Me Po, I wonder how much of this is autobiographical, or at least inspired by his own childhood. The two actors are decent in their roles and the ending is rather emotional.
It is also prudent to question the object of the film's nostalgia. What is it exactly being nostalgic about? Is it simply the oblivious abandon of childhood (which just happened to occur during one of the darkest times in our history)? Or does it have nostalgia for that dark time in itself? I want to say it's the former, but the film isn't exactly doing its audience any favors.
To say that the film is technically rough is a massive understatement. Various edits linger for too long, the meandering camerawork (perhaps to emulate a curious bystander?) at times puts its subjects frustratingly out of frame, and various scenes don't feel fleshed out. Certain green screened moments don't line up with the continuity of the shots before it. Even the film's title sequence has effects that are improperly cropped to fill the entire frame.
That in itself could be chocked up to severe constraints in resources and time (the team consists only of barely more than a dozen people) but the unfortunate effect of that is most deeply felt in the ending. I'd like to believe that the filmmakers had the best intentions in depicting the tragedy of the last few sequences and conveying the message behind it, but because the filmmaking didn't prop it up well, it can be interpreted in a very different way.
Hudas (Joem Bascon) is a habal-habal driver plying the mountain roads every day. When he learns that his old friend Ditas (Meryll Soriano) has passed, he sets off to claim her body, with childhood friend Migs (Benjamin Alves) in tow. The problem: Ditas is a member of the New People's Army and is wanted by the military, which makes retrieving her body from an active combat zone exceedingly risky.
Before I start this review of Angkas, there is one thing worth mentioning: director Rain Yamson II is a frequent collaborator and DoP of Darryl Yap, who serves as one of the executive producers of this film. It's not made clear to how much he is involved in this film, if at all. If that in itself, given recent events, turns you off from watching the film, I'd completely understand. But given how it explores its subject matter, you'd think he was not involved in it at all. Besides, that is the least of the film's problems.
Angkas oscillates between realism and magic realism, at times to its detriment. While sometimes the use of magical realism punctuates certain scenes and makes them more poignant, it makes for some jarring shifts in tone in other scenes. Some scenes in the middle seem to drag on for far too long after it has made its emotional punch, to the point where it feels like padding.
And what of Ditas? The film doesn't demonize her or her cause, rather viewing it as a brave act done out of compassion and in defense of her countrymen. Through flashbacks, we hear in her own words her reasons for joining the movement. But given that these are words from the dead, that's also the thing: Angkas is a film viewed from the outside looking in, in people trying to understand why people choose armed struggle. The use of magical realism here gives Ditas her own voice, yes, but it is unclear if it should be read as Ditas' own words, or as the manifestation of Migs and Hudas' limited understanding of her. It is very clear that Migs and Hudas loved Ditas in their own way, whether they agreed with her or not. Perhaps it would have been better to flesh out Ditas' motivations a lot more, look deeper at the systemic root causes that compel people to go to the mountains, and to see what exactly Hudas and Migs thought about those motivations in hindsight, and the film certainly tries to do so, though I'm not sure if it's enough.
Angkas is both a pleasant surprise and a minor disappointment. At its best the film hits some genuinely emotional notes and lovely moments. At its worst, it's plodding and full of filler. It certainly has a lot of potential and is an interesting film despite its flaws.
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