An interesting prologue sets the movie in motion, first offering
glimpses of the prequel (Tiktik/GMA films
2012) where a clan of tiktik (human
flesh eating, fetus craving super naturals) is slaughtered by the main
protagonist Makoy (Dingdong Dantes) then cutting to the escape of Makoy from another band of tiktik out for revenge. Makoy flees for
the city along with Nestor (Joey Marque)his future father in law, his planned
bride, Sonia and their infant son Macky. Unfortunately,the tiktik catches up with the commuter bus then succeeds in murdering
the bride and taking off with the infant.
From the winding, rocky trail the bus travels on to
the culminating sequence of the attack by the hair expanding tiktik, the audience is propped for a thrilling
horror-fantasy romp.
The bar must have been set so high with the
prologue that after the title credits roll everything goes downhill. Attempting
a reprise of the campy horror cult favorite “Army of Darkness”(MGM/1982)
replete with the amputated arm fitted with weaponry, director Erik Matti, went
overboard with the craziness resulting in a completely inane movie. I don’t
know if that was what he was going for but a little psychotropic might have placed some
logic and turned the movie into something funny, at the least.
Two years after his escape and the murder of his
family, the story continues with Makoy now working as a mechanic living in the
city with his sister (Lotlot De Leon), her daughter and Nestor. Invariably,
Makoy crosses path with the tiktik
when his sister finds that her employer, a young beautiful doctor (Isabelle
Daza) is a kubot, another variant of
flesh eaters. It happened while the doctor tried defending herself and family
from a band of kubot that attacked
them spurred by her attempt to cure a patient slowly becoming a tiktik. She turns into a Kubot in the skirmish to even the odds
but the doctor’s mother and sister are killed nonetheless and she runs for her
life with Makoy’s sister in tow. Their escape ends up with Makoy, bringing him
into the fray but then he is unwilling to join the fight.
Left to fend for themselves, the doctor and Makoy’s
sister turn to the police who are unbelieving until the precinct is attacked,
almost decimated saved by the appearance of Makoy.
Meanwhile, the mayor (KC Montero) turns out to be the
kubot leader bent on turning the
whole population into flesh eaters through a feeding program. The plan is to
hold a free concert with free food mostly hotdogs cured with something that
will turn people into Kubot. Elders
of the Kubot clan rally against the
plan leaving the mayor with no option but to do away with them. Another elder,
Veron (Elizabeth Oropesa) who avoided the dire circumstance by missing the
consultation meeting, gets wind of the devious plan and mounts an action
against the mayor. This elder is the hair expanding variant who has the child
of Makoy.
Long story short, Veron, Makoy, and Nestor unify
against the mayor and bring him down. Makoy is reunited with his child, shown
to have grown to be a Kubot. There
wasn’t much by way of a story.
Kubot obviously
banked heavily on its stars along with the special effects and whatever gains
the first installment left to attract audiences. Proof is the superfluous
participation of Julie San Jose and Abra for the teenage crowd and the cameo of
Alonzo Mulach, although admittedly that one worked.
The movie, as obviously planned, pulled off
effectively the use of special effects as executed by David Yu, rare in
Philippine movies. I especially liked the hair expanding titik scenes and face morphs, reminiscent of the ‘Grimm’ series.
The pre title credit sequence in particular came out well: the hair expanding
villains, the overturning of the bus with the use of the hair by the tiktik, the blood sucking sequence with
an emaciated body being discarded as a result and finally, an explosion.
However the setback in that scene seems to be the lead actor who lacked the
projection of anger and frustration. It could have been the director’s folly.
If you saw the “Goonies” (Amblin/ 1985) movie in the making, it showed Richard
Donner teaching the child lead (Ke Huy Quan) how to project terror until it was
right. The scene involved a train ride on dilapidated rails spiraling down a
cave. The child’s face and shriek of terror really put the scene on the money. On
the other hand, editing could have been the problem. If it was clear the actor
lacked the projection, they could have cut into another sequence leaving just
the cry of frustration in the back drop. Another example of a memorable
sequence of that type is that which showed Pierce Brosnan falling high from a
balloon in the “The world is not enough” (Eon/1999), projecting fierceness and
anger while descending to what should be a fatal circumstance. Now that was
acting. Both were over the top silly movies but the actors playing straight
kept to their characters even in wacky scenes.
The wired fight scenes staged by Larry Ang also added
distinction except that the actors weren’t really in it particularl Isabelle
Daza and joey Marquez who could have used a little more rehearsal for some
realism.
Cinematography and set design by Shing Fung Cheung
and Ericson Navarro respectively, captured notably that Gothic look.
With these things going for it, it seemed like a
shame that the movie didn’t reach its potential. It was too campy for its own
good. The scenes featuring Ramon Bautista and Bogart the explorer looked all
too improvised dawdling when it could have propped the movie for the climax.
On the other hand Lot Lot De Leon, Isabelle Daza
and KC Montero made unexpected revelations.
Ms. De Leon never broke character and carried on as
if her life depended on it. In that scene of the precinct being attacked by tiktik where visibly almost everyone was
enjoying, looking like they would break into laughing fits, she continued appearing
harassed and terrorized.
Ms. Daza turned in a good enough performance outlining
a wide range of emotions from being terrorized to wacky to a confident Kung Fu
vampire. Clearly that whipping scene where she tries to cure a ‘turner’ wasn’t
it but she gets it right in the following attack sequence. Of course, there’s
the wacky scene where she and Dingdong Dantes get cornered and had her doing
madcap that got audience laughing.
KC for his part, might have hammed it up a little
but surely got audiences hissing as the brutal Kubot overlord. He has enough of that menacing look and projected
an obvious evilness never breaking character. That accent of his really helped
the part get a little more nasty.
In all, it’s not Sam Raimi’s “Army of Darkness” but
it’s a good enough movie on a lazy afternoon. I’d give it two and a half on a
scale of five.
