This haunting tale about two "sisters" may seem like a cliché and somewhat inferior to its Asian predecessors in terms of scare factor and twisted storytelling. The script has its loopholes(to cite a few inconsistencies: no one,aside from the four characters in the movie,has ever seen Olivia when she was alive, I mean, really? And how did Mara get her degree in Education, even snag a guy in the process, when it was not shown that she even left Olivia's side as the "guardian"? And this one baffled me the most: What on earth was Olivia's parents thinking when they adopted a very young Mara to be the caregiver of their very wild, deranged child? Actually, I seriously thought that they are the crazy ones).
But there are also several redeeming factors in this film. The slow burn approach that heightened the mysterious and creepy quality of the film. The cinematography that is both beautiful and eerie at the same time. And best of all, the casting ensemble led by Ms Nora Aunor. I was so entranced by her performance that I could not take my eyes away from her.I was literally, blown away by her. No histrionics, and very few speaking lines and yet, she was able to tell the story with masterful subtlety and control, of a woman who is on the brink of madness and guilt-ridden woes, who decided her fate with an ultimate question. Did she do it as a sacrifice for love as an atonement for her "broken" promise or did she do it to escape the inner demons she has been battling all these years?
