‘Dilim’ Review: More dim than dark

Jose Javier Reyes is no stranger to the horror genre.  

In fact, the famed screenplay writer of such classics like Peque Gallaga’s Oro, Plata, Mata (1982), Mario O’Hara’s Condemned (1984), and Celso Ad. Castillo’s Isla (1985) started his directing career with Regal Shocker (1989), the full-length version of the TV series of the same title which proved to be sloppier, schlockier, and arguably more basely entertaining Filipino version of The Twilight Zone. 

However, Reyes, with his knack for creating stories that exhibit class distinctions without the burden of belaboring the point, seems more suited for other genres, where the concern is more about humans interacting with each other than humans interacting with the unknown. His best works, which include May Minamahal (1993), Radio Romance (1996) and Kung Ako na Lang Sana (2003), fluently and cheerfully detail relationships amidst societal gaps. 

Despite that, Reyes has continuously crafted horror movies, mostly upon demand by commercial studios. Reyes’ horror features, like Malikmata (2003) and Matakot Ka sa Karma (2006), are mostly dull and unmemorable. Drowning with all the tropes that are common to the genre, they bear little or none of his trademark wit or his sharp observations regarding societal structures and human relationships. 

A meandering murder mystery

Dilim proves to be a tad more interesting than most of Reyes’ horror films, which is not saying a lot since it still pales in comparison with his best works. There’s actually more to the film than just its accumulation of shocks and shares. Whether that is a good thing is something that deserves a lengthier discussion.

The film follows Maritess (played by Kylie Padilla), a nursing student who moves into a dormitory where she suddenly becomes the victim of nagging nightmares and hauntings. With the help of friends from her new neighbourhood, including literal boy-next-door Emerson (Rayver Cruz), she discovers that the ghosts bothering her are linked to the mysterious disappearance of two nurses five years ago.

Reyes carefully plots the unravelling of the mystery. What begins as just a simple ghost story of a hapless lady being scared to death by strange noises and visitations turns into something far more complicated. Unfortunately, as soon as the phantoms are revealed to be amiable, the film is left without a source of threat or any semblance of danger. It turns into a murder mystery, trite and meandering even with all the supernatural elements. 

Dilim is paced deliberately, which sort of works at the start when the plot is still shrouded with questions and Reyes is relishing in peppering his sequences with visual and aural details that heighten suspense. When things fall into place and the questions start being answered through clues, flashbacks or outright expositions, the leisurely pacing only serves to drag the film to deadening tedium. 

 

 

 

 

Terrified of risks 

Dilim actually has everything it needs to work. Its milieu is precious, and Reyes knows it. By setting the film within the University Belt area, a district that is densely populated by uniformed students, he was able to create tension out of the ordinary. In fact, the film’s most unsettling moments are when Maritess unknowingly befriends a nursing outfit-donned ghost, thinking she is one of them.

Sadly, this appreciation feels skin-deep. Reyes withholds from penetrating right into the core of his milieu. There are horrors beyond the supernatural that could have been mined from the dwindling situation of nursing schools and their students who are forced to whatever means to graduate and escape the country, and Reyes seems to be pointing to that direction. In the end, Dilim still decided to settle for facile scares.

Dilim is terrified to put up risks. Even its antagonists (played by Rafael Rosell and Joross Gamboa) are portrayed as spoiled sissies who only become threats when their survival is at stake. The film hints on being connected to the real-life scandal about women who were dumped into the sea by a wealthy tycoon. Yet, it simply stops right there. 

Dilim avoids politics. It avoids commentary. It avoids wit. It even avoids sensuality, or at the very least, romance. As a result, Dilim is nothing more than your standard horror fare, forgettable like all the rest Reyes has mounted in his otherwise colorful career as filmmaker. – Rappler.com

Francis Joseph Cruz litigates for a living and writes about cinema for fun. The first Filipino movie he saw in the theaters was Carlo J. Caparas’ ‘Tirad Pass.’ Since then, he’s been on a mission to find better memories with Philippine cinema.