Now showing: ‘Red Crown’, ‘Crawlers’

Two movies, Dominic Zapata’s Red Crown and Angel Gomez Hernandez’s Crawlers are screening in cinemas now. Zapata’s Crown is all about the glamor, glitter, intrigues and the mysteries in a beauty pageant. It is showing in movie houses nationwide. Hernandez’s Crawlers pushes the arachnophobia and man versus animal story arc. It is part of the 7th Sine Sindak Film Festival with a limited run that started yesterday until 3 November, showing exclusively in SM Cinemas.

The Crown

Zapata’s Red Crown is all about the 25th anniversary edition of The Queen of the Islands, now with a new owner, the 25 lovely candidates and the many surprises and shenanigans that happen as the pageant proceeds.

From my point of view, the Kit Villanueva script (a long-time artistic collaborator of Zapata) had the dream, believe, survive elements of StarStruck, a cloistered, suffocating feels of being inside the Big Brother House, and that uneven mash up of camp and suspense where logic and reason went out the window and got slammed by the door resulting in more misses than hits and the laugh-out-loud reactions were triggered during the last remaining minutes of the movie.

The hits were provided by real beauty queens Ahtisa Manalo, Ara Arida and MJ Lastimosa. Yes, they can act. They gave it all in a genre like camp. And they willingly messed with themselves and their beauty queen personalities.

Also shining brightly on the silver screen were AZ Martinez, Faith Da Silva and Herlene Budol. Martinez was a riot as the religious beauy queen contender. Da Silva owned her Pating character with the most delicious amount of “Yes, I can” kind of bitchiness. Budol was all natural and hilarious as the outspoken Valekstra.

Stand out seasoned stars Ruffa Gutierrez as the doyenne Charito Macapagal was divine, every inch a beauty queen maker and there were just some scenes that she seemed to be photographed as the longest reigning First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos.

Ruffa was elegance and extravagance personified. And Michael de Mesa and Epy Quizon as Domingo and Philip Montes, these two great actors gave a whole new meaning to the saying “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

The handsomest of them all on screen was Vince Maristela. The camera loved him. So ready for his close-up, screamed top-tier leading and looked interesting and intriguing fully clothed.

Red Crown is forgivable for its muddled beauty pageant and societal commentary because it still delivered an entertaining campy meets dark and gory comedy, with a cast committed to bring the absurdities and wickedness of their characters on screen and a narrative that did not scrimp on twists and turns that made it an enjoyable, do not take it too seriously, delightful viewing.

Crawlers

This has nothing to do with Peter Parker, gifted with spider-powers and out in the open to save mankind from perils. This movie by Hernandez had a swarm of spiders that see human beings as their favorite main entrees. As to why these arachnids decided to inch their way to humans and devour them slowly from the inside and out, the movie never cared to explain.

Clocking in at only 80 minutes, with its cast of unknown actors with the CGI spiders smarter and better than them, this was a fast-paced man versus beast movie that delivered the cringe, squirm and tension.

Character development was an alien concept in this movie and as an spectator to it, all I want is for everyone to be devoured by the spiders, since no one deserves salvation.

Still, it was a popcorn fare with a little kick and punch of terror and a whole ceiling and yard of impossibility.

CreaZion Studios International serves as the local distributor of Crawlers.