Review of Shake, Rattle & Roll 11 (2009) by Dominique N — 07 Jan 2010

Genre: Horror.

After nearly 11 years, I was able to break my... err... break from watching the SRR franchise. Ever since I became a movie buff, I've been very skeptical and critical in choosing what movie to watch and I thought recycling SRR is one of the worst excuses to make in producing a film. But after seeing this 11th installment, I really was surprised to find a smile painted in my lips upon seeing the credits roll. It was a really nice film although the stories and some scenes weren't all original. But technicality wise, all the directors of the three ministories did a really good job.

My favorite among the three stories was Maja Salvador's Diablo. I wasn't surprised this film was given a PG rating and not General Patronage. Diablo encompasses the themes of religion, atheism, love and faith in the metaphysical. I mean, for the longest time I've never seen such themes found in one movie. And we must admit, it takes a lot of guts to discuss such themes in a movie to the piously conservative Filipino society. Yes, it's a rip-off of The Exorcist-cum-Emily Rose, but that didn't displease me because I found more reasons to like it than to hate it. Maja's acting as a possessed woman deserves an award. Her acting was even better than Linda Blair's in The Exorcist. The short film really horrified me and caught me in awe and I found myself reflecting, being an agnostic and all. The only beef was Mark Anthony. He's just horrible. The casting crew must have exhausted all their options. There are so many better actors out there.

The second episode, Ukay-ukay, reminded me of Sam Raimi's horror-comedy style. It was a decent addition to the SRR shorts. Ruffa was freaking hilarious, may it be intended or unintended. Zoren was... sana mag-direct na lang siya kesa mag-act.

And the last was Lamanglupa. OMG, Jennica and Iya were so both so pretty, it's just sad that they all died in the end. I would like to commend the cinematography of the film for it made the movie more exciting to watch.

All in all, I am all smiles we watched SRRXI today.