Coming from a four-day trip, I ended up with an extra day off from work.  What better way to unwind than to spend the day inside the cinema?  By some twist of fate, my former workmate also had the day off, and even better news, she had free movie passes to spare.  Of course, we hauled our asses off to the nearesrt SM cinema and partly continued the tradition of Horrible Movie-fest.  Here’s the round-up of Wenn V. Deramas’ (Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy) foray into the horror genre, Maria Leonora Teresa.

Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk. THE STORY: It seems like well-to-do couples Faith (Iza Calzado) and Stanley Pardo (Dante Ponce) and Stella (Jodi Sta. Maria) and Don de Castro (Joem Bascon) have more than one thing in common with gay elementary shool teacher Julio Sacdalan (Zanjoe Marudo).  Aside from sending all of their respective only daughters, Maria, Teresa and Leonora, to the same posh private school, it they are all bound by a foul, dark secret.  When their kids all die in a freak car accident, Faith, Stella and Julio all jump at the opportunity to move on from the pain and the grief, even if it means keeping and taking care of the life-sized dolls a weird looking Doctor Manolo Apacible (Cris Villanueva) drops at their feet. THE GOOD:

1. Jodi Sta. Maria was crazy good in this movie.  I think out of all the cast, she was the only one well and truly prepared for the role of a grieving parent.  Also, her role as a rich wife suffering a philandering husband shows off her versatility; put a couple of studded diamond earrings on her and she’s a legitimate donya.

   

2. Iza Cazado’s crazy lutang face.  Because she is so beautiful and it’s not that big of a stretch to imagine her popping Xanax like Tic-Tacs, the whole high vibe she went for totally worked.  Really, Iza Calzado should probably just stick to rich gal housewife type of roles, she’s got that in the bag.

   

3. Dante Ponce’s inexplicable shirtless scenes.  This, of course, being a Wenn V. Deramas production, some skin has to be shown.  In this movie’s case, all the skin baring came in the form of Dante Ponce’s Stanley stumbling along the dark without a shirt.  For no apparent reason.

   

4. Zanjoe Marudo made his role believable, although I’m not sure if that’s a testament to his talent or to just really good character writing.  Regardless, sympathy was doled out for his character when he snapped at Iza’s Faith and Jodi’s Stella for mocking his attachment to his doll.

   

THE BAD:

1. The pacing was too fast.  I get that the meat of the story was the actual haunting, but the film just zipped by the whole backstory.  It was a shame because I think that the cast could’ve handled more of the grieving scenes.  Had we seen just how Faith, Stella and Julio struggled through the loss of their respective children, we would’ve been more receptive of their attachments to the freaky  dolls.
2. Priests are on call, apparently.  Little details like a random priest being available for a snap break of dawn exorcism irks me because at that point in the movie, it felt like the film makers were just throwing the metaphorical pasta on the wall and seeing which ones would stick.

THE UGLY:

1. That ending though.  I admit that I may have zoned out during the film’s predictable climatic last twenty minutes, but that ending still made no sense.  Why him?
2. Those ugly dolls!  Considering that they were literally the center of the movie, I think that they could’ve made more effort into making the damned props.  As it is the dolls looked cheap and looked like they were picked up from a random trash bin somewhere.

All in all Maria Leonora Teresa was a stellar example of missed opportunities.  They had capable actors, a weirdly original plot that takes its root from the most basic of human experiences but the film makers refused to focus on the nitty gritty emotions that could have made this movie something worth remembering.  THE VERDICT: 4.5/10 *All photos are lifted from the film’s official page.