For the fourth straight year, writer-director Jose Javier Reyes cooks yet another horror film for the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). This time, perhaps to facilitate comebacking actress' Gretchen Barretto's participation, it's "Matakot Ka sa Karma," a three-episode movie that revolves around three different women and the malevolent forces behind the articles they possess. Basically, each episode follows a certain formula: the main character receives an antique object despite initial reservations only to have their unwillingness justified by spirits who are apparently living in said objects.
The first episode involves Aleli (Barretto), a mother who purchases an old bed for a dubiously low price, and who soon has her son talking to an unseen woman claiming to be his mother. The second episode stars Reyes' muse Rica Peralejo, who in her fourth outing with the director for the same number of consecutive years, is paired off with Derek Ramsey as a young couple who has just been the unlucky owner of a cabinet that houses a vengeful spirit. Finally, for the third episode, Angelica Panganiban is Trina, the hesitant recipient of a seemingly evil necklace found inside her new drawer.
If this be the basis for it, maybe Reyes should stick with light-hearted movies since his other MMFF film "Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo" proves to be an enjoyable romp. On the contrary, "Matakot Ka sa Karma" is, simply put, a bad horror movie. It's a generic, insipid walk-through of just about every cliché performed and as with his previous forays into the genre, it's a haphazardly constructed mishmash of scenes that painfully lack a substantial amount of genuine scares. And for the record, the film features some of the worst prosthetics in history.
The intended color scheme for each episode, along with some nicely textured flashback scenes, gives the film an interesting variety although these aspects have seen better treatment at some halfway decent films. The score is often an overdone prelude to the impending shock moments. The acting is overall adequate but even that department barely rises from this shoddy product.
"Matakot Ka sa Karma" is one of the two horror films showing in this year's MMFF (the other being "Shake, Rattle and Roll 8" - also a three-episode movie). But whereas "Shake, Rattle, and Roll 8" has its moments with its tongue firmly planted on its cheek and a few scares, this one looks too arbitrarily grim for its own good. And as the end credits start to roll, the film has so long seemed exhausted. So is the audience.
