Pagpag: Nine Lives

"Pagpag" is the horror movie offering in the 2013 Metro Manila Filmfest. Being the Pinoy horror film fan that I am, even if it is already the second week, I still had to catch this one.

"Pagpag" is the Filipino custom of dropping by another place first before going home after visiting a wake. This was done so that you will not bring the spirit of the dead home.

Leni (Kathryn Bernardo) manages the Heavenly Touch Funeral Parlor which she had inherited from her parents. One day, she was asked by Lucy (Shaina Magdayao) to arrange the wake of her recently-departed husband Roman (Paulo Avelino).

Cedric (Daniel Padilla) is a spoiled rich kid who was out on a drive with his friends, who almost runs Leni down when he lost control of his car. While waiting for the tow truck, they all wait inside the room where Roman's wake was.

Of course, these young people do not make "pagpag" before they went home, so one by one, people begin to die. As the death count reaches seven, Daniel and Leni have to figure out how to stop the curse before it reaches them as the last two souls required to enable to raise a person from the dead back to life.

Admittedly the way this film was told, it reminded me too much of "Feng Shui." At the wake, each one violates some superstition about behavior in a wake (no crying over the coffin, no wiping the coffin, no taking out food from the wake, no looking at mirrors, etc...). Then they would die in a most bizarre manner related to the faux pas they committed.

Since the leads of this film are the leading young teen stars in local show business, the target audience will be teenagers, hence the terror factor is not too high. In fact this film was even quite funny at times. However, it does not mean that it does not deliver the creeps and the jumps. It surely did!

Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo were charming together, and knew how to play for their fan base with their "kilig" scenes. Matet de Leon (as Ate Eva who knew the secret of Roman and Lucy) and Janus del Prado (as Leni's drunkard Tiyo Dencio) stand out in their supporting roles. Clarence Delgado was very cute as Leni's adopted brother Macmac.

Of course, there were some noted lapses in small details or annoying advertising for Kakao Talk, but these can be ignored. Overall, I thought this was a very well-made horror flick, with above-average (by Philippine standards) special effects when it came to the gruesome death scenes and ghostly apparitions. Director Frasco Mortiz does well to balance the horror and the comedy elements into one entertaining film.

Basically this film revolves around superstitions during funerals hence, the title pagpag. This film stars Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla as the main characters. As usual, their chemistry is great and I enjoyed watching them on screen. The supporting characters were enjoyable to watch. The cast of this film were good.

As a horror film fan, I actually think this movie is pretty decent. Surprisingly, the effects in this film are pretty good (considering that most Filipino horror films use horrible CGI/effects - it is improving as time passes by though so no offense); however, comparing it to horror films from other countries, this isn't really anything special. It is surprising though since I can see that the quality of movies in the Philippines has improved and this is a proof to that.

Regarding the story, I find the concept pretty interesting. A problem that I see though is that it lacks substance. The story was simple which is nice since it's easy to understand and not much thinking is needed but the scares were predictable as well as the ending. I believe this movie could have been better.

Overall, this movie is watchable and pretty decent. It's enjoyable if you're looking for a light horror film revolving around teenagers.

Sure, I had never heard about this 2013 Filipino horror movie titled "Pagpag: Siyam Na Buhay" (aka "Pagpag: Nine Lives") prior to stumbling upon it by random luck whilst perusing the Netflix catalogue of Asian movies. And given my fascination and love for both horror and Asian cinema, then of course I opted to sit down and watch what director Frasco Mortiz had to offer.

Which turned out wasn't exactly a whole lot, truth be told. Yeah, writers Joel Mercado and Kren V. Yap didn't exactly churn out a stellar script for director Frasco Mortiz to bring to the screen. The storyline in "Pagpag: Siyam Na Buhay" was, in fact, a laughable one.

If you manage to remain awake during the slow the narrative that persists for 105 minutes, admits equally boring characters and mundane acting performances, then you deserve applause.

There was nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, scary about "Pagpag: Siyam Na Buhay". Well, aside from the slow pacing of the narrative.

It felt like you had to be native Filipino to properly enjoy this 2013 movie from director Frasco Mortiz.

My rating of "Pagpag: Siyam Na Buhay" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Bad acting ruined what should have been an interesting story. It was not even scary.

Jump scare bullshit, trying to remake the success of Feng Shui and Sukob which are for me, the best Filipino horror films of this generation. They don't care about how the film was made. What they only care about is to grab money from the audience. Horrible use of CGI, they should stuck up using practical effects like Feng Shui, bad acting is bad, mainstream type of stupid characters, conclusion, this is one of the worst Filipino film of all time.. Pagpag, don't watch it, Katniel should only do romantic movies, don't go to horror film, it's an insult for us horror fanatics. . I'm a Kapamilya but I want a change from Star Cinema, just support movies of Erik Mati (like On the Job and Honor Thy Father) and Jerrold Tarog most recently Heneral Luna.