"Sukob"

My daughter has been bugging me to watch the movie “Sukob” or The Wedding Curse, a suspense-thriller by one of my fave directors Chito Rono for a week now. She’s one of those who gets easily scared but still loves watching horror movies while I’m the exact opposite. It would take a lot to make me scream when watching said genres. So last Sunday, we headed to Glorietta 4 just in time for the screening, Seems the movie is doing good box- office wise, I had a hard time locating vacant seats.

The movie is about a superstitious belief among Filipinos that siblings should not get married on the same year or when a close family member dies. It's supposed to bring bad luck to the married couple.

Sandy (Kris Aquino) and Dale (Wendell Ramos) are both overseas workers who came home to get married. Upon reaching her home, Sandy learns from her mother, Daisy, what happened to her friend, Helen. A short time after Helen’s father died, Helen proceeded with her wedding. A few weeks after the wedding, Helen’s husband dies in a plane crash. As Helen goes to the crash site, she dies in a bus accident. A few weeks later, Helen’s mother suddenly disappears inside her house. Their bodies have never been recovered.

On the eve of her wedding, Joya (Maja Salvador)the daughter of Dale's cousin began seeing a vision from the house accross Sandy's. Sandy proceeds with her own wedding and during the ceremony, she suffers from nosebleed and starts seeing glimpses of a ghostly flower girl from the church up to the reception. She begins to feel uneasy especially when Joya confirmed seeing the ghostly apparition too. Tragedy starts immediately when her bridesmaids had a road accident but their bodies were never found, instead her bridal cord was recovered from the site. She immediately sought the help of Joya who told her about her vision of another couple (Claudine Baretto and Bernard Palanca) getting married and suffering the same fate.

Isabel (Claudine) lost her husband a day after the wedding and his body was never recovered. She also sees the apparition of the ghost at her wedding and everytime someone close to her dies.

Things become more mysterious when Sandy receives their respective wedding photos. The people who died are headless in the photos. They realize that all the headless people in the photos are bound to die. Joya tells Sandy that she is cursed by the “sukob.” Sandy is shocked – no one in her family has died recently, nor has anyone gotten married. In searching for the truth, Sandy unearths a family secret. I'll assume you can already guess what the secret is. And in order to end the curse one of them has to make a sacrifice.

Overall the actors gave a convincing performance but Claudine was the stand-out in this movie. The cinematography is good but the nitpicker in me will always find loopholes. I just can't see the connection of the ghost to Helen the neighbor who died, Sandy and Isabel. But if you just want to be entertained they go ahead to watch it.