Huwag Kang Titingin is about a group of students who encounter what the locals call the “Umaaligid” after erring in a ritual meant for communicating with the dead.
Before all the chaos, we are introduced to Selene (Sofia Pablo) and Brian (Marco Masa), siblings who own a rest house in a small town called San Antonio. They are joined by their classmates: Benj (Michael Sager), Tanya (Charlie Fleming), Migz (Anthony Constantino), Liza (Kira Balinger), Onat (Josh Ford), and A-Jay (Sean Lucas). They are greeted by the house’s caretaker, Manang Baby (Lui Manansala), and Badong (Allen Ansay).
While documenting a solemn religious parade, Selene is haunted by the image of her dead stepmother, Sandra (Sherilyn Reyes-Tan), disrupting the procession and angering the locals. Around this time, we also learn that Selene and Brian are hiding a secret: they are the reason their stepmother died.
The students regroup at the rest house, and as a way to make up for their failed trip to San Antonio, Manang Baby teaches them an old ritual to communicate with the dead.
As expected, the teens eagerly gather that night to perform the ritual. But before they can finish it, they are confronted by a dark and malevolent entity — the Umaaligid.
It is something of a tradition to give Pinoy Big Brother housemates projects after their stint at the famous Bahay ni Kuya. The program sort of functions as an incubator, a visibility machine designed to create emotional attachment between viewers and a celebrity.
A project is a barometer of whether the incubation works. If it translates to good ticket sales, then good. They now have a new profitable roster to build on. But if it doesn’t, they can either focus on specific talent or start fresh with a new batch entirely.
The problem with this is that show business is also about talent, and PBB produces personalities, not craftspeople. Sure, character and authenticity matter. But the way to stay relevant is to show that you can grow your following and entertain people through hosting, dancing, singing, and acting, because those are what bring in money.
A large part of me believes that films like this are less about cinema and art and more about market research. I don’t think they made Huwag Kang Titingin primarily because Frasco Mortiz had a story to tell. I think they made it because they had a list of newly-minted faces with fresh fanbases and needed to convert that attention into revenue, and perhaps simultaneously find out which of those faces are worth investing in in the future.
I’m telling you all this because context is important in film. And secondly, because talking about a film being a brochure for a talent roster is a far more interesting discussion than actually reviewing the film itself.
But since this is a film review site, let me open by saying that Huwag Kang Titingin is terrible.
The first thing you will notice is the acting. I’m okay with Marco Masa and Kira Balinger, but everyone else? Oh boy. They need more time in the workshop. The thing is, I already set my expectations going in. I wasn’t asking for FAMAS-level acting. I just needed them to convince me that they were playing a character. But most of them feel lifeless in their roles.
What makes this especially sad is that this was the calling card for most of these young performers. It was their first major theatrical release, the thing they would show future directors as proof of what they can do. And they fumble it.
It doesn’t help that the story is equally terrible.
In all fairness, I can see the potential. The Aswang episode from Shake, Rattle & Roll II shares the same basic premise as this film: outsiders go to a mysterious town, the locals know something the visitors don’t, and the community slowly reveals itself to harbor something dangerous. On paper, Huwag Kang Titingin feels like a modern, self-aware version of that.
But it wasn’t long until it botched the premise. The film rushes you into the story before you’ve had time to invest in it. Before you can settle in, make sense of the lore and the danger lurking in San Antonio, you’re already face to face with the horrors you haven’t yet learned to fear. The non-linear structure is an interesting choice, but it wasn’t used correctly here. After every scare, the film is forced to backtrack and show us the buildup. It kills momentum.
The film’s focus is all over the place as well. This story would work far better if it centered on Selene and Brian. But beyond them, there are five or more characters the film is trying to follow, and because of that, Selene’s story starts to feel like one subplot among several rather than the actual spine of the film.
Worth mentioning too is that the ending carries implications that undermine the very lesson the film is trying to teach. Selene’s journey is about confronting guilt and taking responsibility. But in the end, the film betrays its own thesis by doing the exact opposite of both of that.
There are certain Filipino films where you can feel, almost immediately, that everyone involved is just going through the motions. Huwag Kang Titingin is one of them. The acting is flat because the direction is flat. The direction is flat because the screenplay is weak. The screenplay is weak because the project was greenlit not out of passion, but out of tradition and an entertainment calendar that needed filling.
The hard truth is, a project like this will always be mediocre at best, because it was never designed to produce art. It was designed to answer a financial question: are these young stars profitable?
1/5
Now showing in cinemas.