Sigaw

Sigaw is a 2004 Filipino horror film directed by Yam Laranas, the title translates into either "Shout" or "Scream" in English but has been released as The Echo internationally to avoid confusion with the US horror film Scream. The film was a box office success in the Philippines where the horror genre has become increasingly popular. The success of the film also owes much to the bankability of its two main male stars. In 2005, the film received a release in both Singapore and Malaysia

Sigaw, aka “The Echo”, is an Asian ghost movie — I know what you’re thinking: Not another one! — but this one isn’t from China, Japan, or Korea. It’s a Filipino film directed by Yam Laranas, and it’s about a haunted apartment building that exists both in the present and the past.

When studious young Marvin (Richard Gutierez) moves into his first home away from home, he does his best to fix the grim little place up (though the unit makes the Dark Water set look like a palace) with the help of his buxom girlfriend, Pinky (Angel Locsin). At first things seem to be going well enough, despite the strange noises and the even stranger neighbors also residing on the water-stained 7th floor.

At night he hears a drunken, paranoid Bert (Jomari Yllana) verbally and physically abusing his wife Anna (Izza Calsado), and his young daughter Lara (Denise Guevarra), but Marvin doesn’t want to get involved — not only is Bert violent, but he’s a cop. However, the new tenant can’t help but get involved when one evening Anna pleads with him to baby-sit her daughter for a few hours, just until Bert simmers down. The fact that the little girl has long, dark hair ought to be clue enough, but what really sends Marvin over the edge is how she keeps disappearing and then reappearing in the oddest places. A limp, pitiful rag doll is her constant companion.

Marvin begins to doubt his own sanity. He shares his concerns with Pinky, who tries to convince him to move out, but this is his very first place, one that he bought with own money working at a nearby restaurant, and he isn’t about to be convinced so easily to just pick up and leave. Before long, Pinky starts having nightmarish experiences in the building too. Neither can deny that something is terribly wrong when the bloodstained apparitions of Anna and Lara show up in places other than Marvin’s apartment; the couple’s daily existence seems to fade in and out of reality and they vow to somehow set things right.

Sigaw, despite its oppressive use of drab olive greens and dreary sepia browns, is a beautifully shot film with some truly interesting camera angles and clever use of negative space. The moody musical score adds to the feelings of foreboding and danger, and the ambience of knocking, crying, and clanking are stealthily woven in to create a creepy cloak of sound. Each of the actors does a believable job of conveying a real sense of dread. While the solving of the mystery comes as no surprise and some questions are left hanging, the writer (Roy C. Iglesias) and director do a nice job of making the audience care what happens to the characters anyway.

Slowly drowning in a netherworld of torment and loneliness, Sigaw is not a feel-good horror movie. It’s not even particularly scary or thought-provoking, but there is something oddly compelling about it. While it spends too much time on the buildup and not enough on the resolution, Sigaw is definitely worth seeing at least once.

Movie review

Asian horror's recent surge in popularity is indicative of, if anything, ignorance towards world cinema. Truth is, these "ghost movies" have been a fixture of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Filipino, and Indonesian cinema for decades, just as they have been a fixture of human culture since the first campfire and the first campfire tale. Westerners just haven't been exposed to them en masse until now. What has changed is the way in which the stories are presented. Now they’re palatable to Americans.

Eastern ghost films from the '60s and '70s were subtle, moodier affairs that relied on atmospherics more than shocks. With the encroachment of Western cinema in the '80s and the introduction of flashy Hollywood style, Eastern horror films adopted some of the excesses that have become standard in traditional Western horror pictures: the POV camerawork, the Dario Argento gel lighting, the quick cut, and the shock-scare. Many young Eastern filmmakers incorporate these styles into their traditional ghost films, and the results have been breaking box office records across the globe.

Curiously, what remains of the conventional Eastern ghost film are the images that are most culturally specific: the long-haired drowned girl (most noticeable in Japanese horror), the idea that an evil impulse remains in one place long after the actors have left, and so on. Yam Laranas's Sigaw (The Echo) is a Filipino horror film that spins a traditional, though sincere, ghost story, albeit updated with modern effects and camerawork. What differentiates Sigaw from the rest of the pack (The Ring, The Grudge) is its simple story told simply.

The story revolves around a place, a decrepit concrete apartment complex, as much as it does the main character of Marvin (Richard Gutierrez). The apartment building that Marvin moves into is a sprawling, spiraling structure that is ominous and earthy. We never get a clear picture of the place, but it is a dreadful combination of low-income pre-fab blocks and oddly organic staircases and colors. It is always cloaked in shadow and haunted by odd groans and bangs. The structure may not be alive but it most certainly is haunted.

Every night, Marvin hears awful sounds of abuse emanating from his neighbor's apartment. The occupants, a policeman, his wife, and daughter, live in a netherworld of suffering; the cop's (Jomari Yllana) an alcoholic with a violent temper, his wife is a woman caught between devotion to her husband and fear for her child and her own life, and the little girl is a spooky, near-silent little waif who carries around a ragged doll. Marvin’s girlfriend Pinky (the sexy Angel Locsin) tries to talk Marvin into moving; there are many more apartments in the city, but he’s a trooper – like all ghost story protagonists, he won’t let fear get the better of him.

When Marvin begins to see things, flashes of the neighbor’s daughter drenched in blood, he begins to worry about his sanity. Ah, but there are far worse things than madness at work in his apartment complex. When Laranas reveals the twist of the movie, one that is not unexpected but wholly satisfying none the less, there is a sense of relief. It’s not that the film is particularly suspenseful or horrifying, there are no scenes of cracked hags jerkily descending staircases or drowned ghouls walking out of television screens, but it has an atmosphere of fear and loneliness that is positively sinking. Sigaw cuts past all the shock and awe of revulsion to really get to the meat of the traditional ghost story: the human element. Ghost stories aren't about cackling bones, they're about people and people's fear, Laranas knows this and preys upon our emotions expertly.

American readers may encounter some difficulty in tracking down a copy of Sigaw (try the net), and I doubt the Hollywood machine will be remaking it any time soon. That’s a shame, because Sigaw is a subtle, human ghost tale that will haunt you long after you’ve forgotten Dark Water or The Ring. Aka The Echo.

 

Storyline Marvin savors his independence in a newly acquired unit of an old apartment building. He is frequently visited by his girlfriend Pinky. Except for the occasional noise from an apartment unit down the hallway, the place is almost perfect for Marvin. At the end of the hallway is where Anna lives with her young daughter Lara, and Bert, her jealous husband. Bert is a cop, and he has always suspected Anna of two-timing him. His frequent jealous outbursts would always lead to beatings that could be heard throughout the whole floor. Marvin would usually be awakened at night by the sound of screaming and beating from Anna's unit. Marvin complains to the building caretaker, a drunk, who would just tell him to ignore the disturbance from the apartment down the hall. Anna and her daughter would usually ask for help from Jude, who lives in an apartment unit in the middle of the hallway. Jude's apartment becomes a temporary refuge for the little girl Lara.

Cast

Jomari Yllana as Bert
Richard Gutierrez as Marvin
Iza Calzado as Anna
Angel Locsin as Pinky
James Blanco as Jude
Ella Guevara as Lara
Lui Manansala as Marvin's Mother
Tessie Villarama as Pinky's Mother
Pocholo Montes as Pinky's Father

Remake

A US remake of the film was made in 2008, entitled The Echo.