So, Espantaho got a zero from Goldwin Reviews. I decided to bump it up on my schedule and watch it right away. "It couldn't be that bad," I told myself.
The first two frames got me thinking, "Hmmm, maybe this does deserve a zero," The death of Pablo, the patriarch at the beginning, was supposed to set the tone for everything.
But, the way someone fell down during the scene while convulsing was just so awkward and fake, just like the plate smashing slo-mo.
It doesn't help that afterwards we get an apparition of Pablo looking like a skinless longganisa, or Rosa (Lorna Tolentino) chastising Monet (Judy Ann Santos) how they should
just buy more food on their outings so they don't have to go to the market everyday.
"I'll probably walk out of this halfway into the movie," I told myself.
Nope. It never happened. Instead, what followed was 90 minutes of delicious campy horror melodrama.
When the legal family led by Adele (Chanda Romero) arrived, everything started to make sense.
"Paalisin mo yang mga kontrabida yan ha, " Adele blurted out.
And I started snickering. Espantaho directed by Chito Rono never meant to scare us, it was meant to make us laugh.
The film and those in it knows that its funny. And they are so game.
Chanda has long been stereotyped in the Kapuso network playing a condescending & quarrelsome characters, so she plays Adele here with much aplomb, putting Monet and Rosa in their places from the get-go. Rosa maintained her sulky temperament almost all throughout the film, an other woman ready to fight tooth and nail to defend Monet's honor, with her best scenes involving a table and a cane which really elicited a loud laughter from me.
So, why did Judy Ann Santos win Best Actress? Because she balanced all the drama. She was the calm in the midst of the storm, which made the thing a lot more funnier.
If the horrible (not horrifying) musical scoring with sudden close-ups of the characters' faces as well as the bad special effects isn't enough to convince you that the film really is making fun of itself because it wants you 2 have fun too, then Eugene Domingo's line as Aling Gloria will. There is a scene there where she gets asked about the thing to find the Espantaho with, and her facial expression was just so "nakakagago".
However, despite its antics and being a "loving hate letter" to the genre just like what Cabin in the Woods did, it does actually have a very feminist message tucked within
its core, particularly about how misogyny, just like the evil painting, is a pestilence that makes its way into women's lives and wreaking havoc without them ever knowing it exists till it's too late.
I would have given this a higher score if Chito Rono's direction was more resolute campiness but it's not. Chris Martinez, known for his intelligent comedies, wrote the
script. I think it might have worked better if he directed this himself or maybe Lem Lorca who did Echorsis.
Espantaho might look flawed and messy at times, but really, it is so much fun once you get the hang of it.