DIRECTOR Giancarlo Abrahan traces Filipino horror through familial trauma in his second full-length Cinemalaya entry, “Mag-iina” (“Mothering”), creating a sense of desolation and looming doom.
The horror film opens with Anj (Janine Gutierrez), who returns home for her estranged father’s 40th-day prayer, a Filipino tradition in which the family gathers to pray for the soul of the departed.
Three generations of women live in the household, each grappling with grief: Anj’s aunt Ysobel (Cherry Pie Picache), her mother Mita (Agot Isidro), and her grandmother Angela (Jackie Lou Blanco).
Ysobel takes charge of the family and cares for Yñigo (Lucas Andalio), a child named after the late patriarch who, as the film progresses, slips into an eerie trance-like state and becomes possessed by Anj’s father.
Tormented and isolated, Mita continually pleads for her husband to communicate with her from the afterlife, haunted by questions about his missing belongings and infidelity.
Angela, meanwhile, harbors resentment toward the three other women in the household.
The film’s opening sequence is straightforward in its horrific intent, yet its use of language lacks clarity. The frequent English dialogue and code-switching create an inconsistent tone ill-suited to the film’s atmosphere, at times sounding forced and disconnected from the sinister scenes.
It also falls short of developing the characters’ individuality and explaining why they are positioned throughout the film as clashing personalities.
The film’s focus on an estranged family and the deep-rooted fears arising from trauma and unresolved conflict adds another layer of horror to its depictions of harassment and eerie imagery. Some of these elements, however, feel randomly placed and scattered, leaving the latter parts of the film loosely connected.
“Mag-iina” merges reality and the supernatural to vividly convey that it is not merely spirits that haunt the household, but its history, buried resentments, and trauma that make home inescapable.
The full-length horror film ultimately shows how deeply Filipinos are bound to family: despite attempts to heal from or escape its trauma, secrets and destructive patterns can persist across generations. Rhamiel Mae T. Vicente
