Thursday, November 09, 2006

Cinemanila 2006: Numbalikdiwa

View the trailer

Numbalikdiwa (2006)
Maricel Soriano, Albert Martinez, Meryl Soriano, Ping Medina, Estrella Kuenzler

Bobby Bonifacio


Numabalikdiwa (n) - An ancient, macabre ritual where the dead assumes the body of a living person. Like cannibalism, it involves the ingestion of the deceased’s ground meat and bones as part of the ritual. With the help of the Sasigloho, an ancient tribal deity, the dead assumes the identity of the living and continues to live his/her life accordingly, granting near immortality to the one who practices it.

Numbalikdiwa follows the lives of adoptive siblings, Karissa (Meryl Soriano) and Anton (Ping Medina), and live-in partners, Carlos (Albert Martinez) and Portia (Maricel Soriano). The couple cross paths with the siblings because they are frequent buyers of the barbeque they sell.

One night, after an argument with Anton, Karissa runs away. Unaware of her surroundings, a car hits her. When she opens her eyes, she is in a different surroundings, in a different body. It is now up to her to continue the new life she has been given or live the life she once had.

Numbalikdiwa, as a horror film, is a breath of fresh air from the roster of horror films that have been coming out lately. For a new director, Bobby Bonifacio is very promising and someone to look forward to. The whole film has creepiness written all over it. Good acting from the whole cast. Lighting could be better, though.

Catch Numbalikdiwa this Cinemanila 2006! Check out Cinemanila's sked here.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi jheck. Thanks for the nice review. By the way, Numbalikdiwa is part of Cinemanila 2006 and not Cinemalaya. hehe. Its great that you appreciated our movie. Thanks again.

Bobby

sineasta said...

Hi, Bobby! Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate it a lot!

Error corrected. Thank's for calling my attention. The truth is, there was a time I got confused with the two festivals. Wondered which is which. Hehe.

Hope to see you again here!