Bahay Na Pula (2022)

Keep Your Expectations At A Nice Respectable Level

Oooh, a horror film with an interesting plot and good actors at its helm? I was excited. Plus, I was curious what a movie headed by Julia and Xian would be like. It’s eh, for me. At best? I’d say it’s ‘fine’.

The movie did well with some of the religious symbolism. The beginning was fine. However, everything goes downhill when they arrive at the primary setting of the movie, Pola, Oriental Mindoro. The plot becomes too confusing and a little too convoluted to be properly understood, much less enjoyed. The plot tries to tell the narrative through Jane's dreams or visions, but I barely managed to piece together anything. That either means two things: 1) I’m a colossal dumbass or 2) the storytelling missed the mark. Was the tension there? Yes. It certainly made me uneasy and/or shocked in some scenes. Was I immersed? Yes, but I think that’s only because I turned the lights off and wore headphones for the entire movie to feel more scared. Moreover, I’m not sure that the side plots were necessary. I think that the movie was dragged out more than it needed to and, at times, it felt slow-moving.

The actors were fine individually. Together? I’m not so sure. I was looking forward to how Xian and Julia would pull off being newlyweds but, really, it was so clear that they’d never acted before. Was the chemistry there? If I squint my eyes and think very hard, then yes. The same goes for the chemistry between Julia and Marco.

The ending shocked me, yes, but with all of the dots I failed to connect, it’s hard to see how the ending was supposed to make sense. Hell, after I finished the movie, I looked up “bahay na pula ending explained” and still didn’t find any answers.

Overall, it’s fine if you want to watch it if you’re curious but you shouldn’t really expect anything great or phenomenal here.

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