Patient X short review
The friend who told me that the film Patient X is nice owes me P121 and for gas and food!!! arrgh!! one-liner review - THE PROMISED THRILL WAS NOT DELIVERED.
"Patient X" made me miss how brilliantly Yam directed "Sigaw" and though the premises were different (Sigaw is basically a ghost story with ala-Korean themed Grudge, “PX” is a straightforward “aswang” film - which btw have obvious Hispanic heritage as the aswangs here are Mestizos!! Yum!!), "Sigaw" is masterpiece film of Yam unfortunately "Patient X" is not.
Although the opening scene served as precursor to the plot of the movie, it also actually dampened the intended thrill or scare of the movie. Meaning, sa umpisa eh alam mo nang may aswang pala. So whats the point?
Overall plot intent of the films wasn’t clear – is it the relationship between wife- and husband-aswangs? Is it the doctor going back to avenge the slaying of his family? Is it the police chief expressing his hatred to the aswangs? Or maybe all of these? Anyway, as you watch the film, you no longer will ponder upon why the movie is like what it is as 30 minutes into film, you would want to leave the theater. Maybe, that’s why, there were only about 15 or so people inside the theater when we watched last night (anyway, it is already on its third week).
When director Yam said “This (Patient X) is 10 times scarier than ‘Sigaw’", well its not (i could watch Sigaw over and over again, and the eeriness is still there). The aswangs were not all scary, the plot was not thrilling and sadly, the characters were not endearing, well except for the wife-aswang who Christine acted in brilliantly. Anyhow, Yam was able to extract acting pieces from the three leads – Richard, TJ and of course Christine. All were consistent in portraying their characters especially for Christine and Richard - they’re not just eye candies but actually are effective actors. >>
