Spoiler Warning! If you haven’t watched the film and don’t want to know the details please stop reading.

© ABS-CBN Star Cinema 2006

This is one of those rare times when a horror movie can scare me enough to make me cover my eyes while watching. And what’s cool about it is that it has a psychological slant to explain the body count in the plot.

The movie begins with ‘Uyayi’, a story about a young female nurse, Melissa, working at a hospital dubbed as a ‘Katay’ hospital because of the number of patients dying in increasing frequency. She has a boyfriend, James, who’s working as a journalist investigating these mysterious deaths. Melissa has already voiced her suspicions that it was Doctor Carn who’s killing off the patients.

With the number of dead patients rising, the hospital is slowly losing money and under investigation by authorities. So few employees are being retained and the facilities are suffering.

The story becomes more interesting when troubled spirits of the dead plague Melissa every 3 o’clock in the morning. She always sees these visions of bloodied patients and even nurses who worked there and died suddenly. She’s convinced these spirits are asking for her help and she has asked James to help her.

The twist comes in the end, of course, when we all discover that it was Melissa her self who was committing the murders at the hospital. Important clues for the next subplot ‘Salamin’ is hidden in ‘Uyayi’. The little lullaby Melissa sings before she kills James and her mentioning her childhood, and the significance of 3 am for her.

‘Salamin’ tells of a family of three – a sickly mother and her two daughters, Angel and Nina. They have just moved into a big old house at such a low rent they thought was a steal. No one has lived in that house before. Most have backed out of the deal or suddenly disappeared.

Angel works at a government office and has a philandering boyfriend, Lander. Nina is the younger sister at only 6 or 7 years old. Their mother makes pastillas and other native delicacies and Angel sells them at the office. Their father has left them for another woman a long time ago.

The terrifying events of ghosts haunting the three started when Angel and Nina played a little game in front of a large antique mirror hidden in the basement of the house. It was midnight and as the little game goes any maiden who wishes to see her future husband must light a candle and face the mirror at midnight. She must wish with all her heart and when she opens her eyes she will see the man she will marry. It just so happens the mirror was a portal for spirits from the past and future. That innocent game Angel and Nina played has opened the portal and the spirits crossed over.

The caretaker of the house denied it at first but later one of the neighbors revealed to Angel that a girl was raped and slain in that house. Ever since her death no one has been able to remain in that house for long.

As the psychic friend of Angel explained, Maila, the slain girl was the spirit of the past and the unknown others were the spirits of the future. As a solution, Angel and her friend threw the mirror into the river. They thought that would end the spirits’ crossing over.

Red, the son of the caretaker, has memories of the killing of Maila, but it was not immediately certain that it was he who raped and killed her. The normal person would immediately assume him guilty since Red is obviously a drug addict (shifty eyes, runny nose and injection marks on his arm… hmm…. how many types of drugs does he use?)

Wherever they go the spirits follow them.

Angel decided to return to the house and try to find a way to end their spirit troubles. One night she went back alone. There she found to her horror more mirrors stored in the basement. And the caretaker waiting with a knife. They had a struggle and a chase through the house before Angel’s mother, sister and friend came to her rescue.

But the climax hasn’t come yet. The future spirits that Angel’s friend was referring to were actually Angel’s mom, her boyfriend Lander, Red, her friend, and Angel her self. Except for Nina, they all died in that house.

Now for the climax and the ultimate twist in the movie:
When morning came, the ambulance and the police found Nina the sole survivor in the basement crying over her older sister’s dead body. Everything happened at about 3 am in the morning. Nina was taken to an orphanage, changed her name to Melissa and grew up to become a nurse.

She worked in the US for 6 years before coming home to build her older sister’s dream home. She started working at that certain hospital because the lot where it was built is the same lot where the old house used to be.

She seems to be emotionally disturbed, a violent psychosis brought on by the traumatic events she witnessed when she was a child. The killer has left his mark on Nina and she went on to kill more people trying to hold back the spirits from crossing over including her sister, Angel, and their mother. To complete her ‘family’ she decided to kill James too.

Review:
The Filipino horror films of the past are gone. In their place is a sleek new breed of horror genre following the modern scare techniques introduced by the Japanese that began with ‘The Ring’. ‘Wag Kang Lilingon is horrifying not because of the gory make up or the excellent special effects. It was mainly a psycho-horror film. It disturbs the mind and soul more than the viscera.

Traditional scare tactics remain, however, like the sudden thunder storm at midnight (doh!), the thrown cat, the panggulat scenes. But I like the new ones better like the creative camera angles and movement that destabilizes one’s sense of balance, the glaring lights and muted colors at the hospital make the scenes more eerie, the blood and gore of course were a mark from American slasher films, and the psychological slant makes the ‘Uyayi’ subplot seem a reminiscent of ‘Saw’ and other psycho-horror films that take away the technical aspects and focused more on characterization. The second subplot is more traditional but still innovative with the gothic atmosphere of an old house, an antique mirror and too few characters used to tell the story.

What makes ‘Salamin’ particularly horrific is the use of a child character as protagonist. A child set in the middle of death and violence is scary in itself. One doesn’t need spirits to stir up the screams in the theater. The image of a bloodied man wielding a knife and chasing a little girl into the basement of the old house where another man lies dead is disturbing. That the same little girl grew up to become a killer is even more disturbing.