The Heiress: Movie Review

The biggest issue we had with "The Heiress" was its lack of enthusiasm. It's a pretty dull and lifeless film with pretty much non-existent horror in tow. Worse, there's really no saving grace even in terms of its story or characters. We just couldn't get into the film much as we tried our best to.

Guia (Janella Salvador) is turning 18 years old soon. She was left by her mother (Sunshine Cruz) with her Aunt Luna (Maricel Soriano) ever since she was a young girl. Now that she's becoming a woman, Guia has started to have her own free will like liking another person. But her Aunt Luna has always prevented her from having friends or acquaintances. Unbeknownst to Guia, her Aunt Luna is actually a mambabarang or a demon sorceress and she wants Guia to inherit her dark powers at all costs.

Aside from its great cinematography and production values, everything else within the film just felt awkwardly placed. The premise itself had potential but the lazy and confounding writing did not help the film at all. The connection between characters and the "heiress" part was missing or hazily built. The story was generic and scenes felt disconnected or out of place. Characters lacked any development that really hampered how we connected with each one - we couldn't care less if someone died or got hurt. Even after watching the film, we couldn't understand if a particular major character was good, bad, or just manipulated by a demon. There's just this overall sense that all elements in the film were shallow - from its minute details to its broader strokes. Aside from that, the horror in particular got stale pretty fast as the mambabarang just kept showing herself nonstop. This penchant to reveal herself time and time again just made the disturbing and creepy facade of her character lose its effectiveness midway through the film. Plus it didn't help that the film heavily uses jump scares and old tactics to try and  "surprise" viewers. Overall, "The Heiress" was a complete waste of time and there's really no redeeming factor for viewers to latch onto.

Rating: 1 reel

Why you should watch it:
- the cinematography and visuals were great at times

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- a pointless and dull horror experience