Movie Review - The Road

The Road

2011

GMA Films : Freestyle Releasing / Freestyle Digital Media

8.5 / 10

If you're like me and enjoy a good movie, no matter what the language, then you should check out this Filipino gem.

What this film gives the audience is a story in three very different acts.

The first act is the present day where three friends "borrow" a car to go joy riding.  Though their version of joyriding isn't creating havoc on the road but to actually practise their driving.  While they're tootling around the town they see a police car and decide to try and find a quieter section of town.  They come across a fenced off lane and think it would be a good place to improve their driving skills.  However, it's not long before they find themselves in some scary and creepy situations.  The director Yam Laranas does a fantastic job of creating an eerie atmosphere, using shadows and light to their fullest.  The only thing I found annoying with the film was in this act... the girls really can scream... you need to turn the volume down before all the glass in your house explodes...

The second act starts to tell of the events that have led up to the present day events.  We travel back in time a couple of years to when two sisters disappear while travelling the road.  Adding to the creepiness of the earlier act the story now adds a dark and ominous feel as things become dangerous and deadly for the sisters.

The third act goes back twelve years to the very beginning and shows the psychological effects that a dysfunctional family in turmoil can experience, especially if one of the family is mentally unstable.  This is one of the strongest sections of the film as it resolves the mysterious parts of the story.  Laranas does a brilliant job of building atmosphere, once again.  This time he uses brightness and shadows to convey feeling.  Add the great acting of Carmina Villaroel who plays Carmela, a strong controlling independent woman caught in a loveless marriage due to having a child, a woman who runs hot and cold at the flick of a switch.

All of this makes the story much more interesting.   The writers, Aloy Adlawan and Yam Laranas, easily blend the styles and intricacies into a strong and believeable story that spread through the horror, thriller, psychological, and crime genres.

I would recommend this to all horror lovers and even to fans of thrillers, who wouldn't usually watch a horror movie.  This film really does work on so many levels.

This trailer does not portray how good this film really is.