Jane Legaspi and her husband Raffy visited their old American-era ancestral house in Pola, Oriental Mindoro before it gets dismantled and translocated to a heritage park called Mi Casa Filipinas. They saw an old gramophone in the living and tried to play it, but the music that played from the scratchy record revived the vile spirit of a sadistic Japanese soldier from World War II (Yoshihiko Tora) to go prowl around the house again.

The caretaker of the house was Aling Ising, a mysterious old woman with a big birthmark over her right eye, a loyal servant of Jane's family. She harbored certain dark secrets which made her more than a mere observer. Another side character was Roger, an ex-boyfriend of Jane who now worked for the mayor of Pola. His boss was not keen on allowing the sale of the house, so Jane resorted to asking for his help to get her papers through.

Julia Barretto has certainly graduated from teeny-bopper roles in her role here as Jane. She was pregnant here, with a quickly growing tummy. There was a scene of her topless while taking a bath using a dipper taken from above and behind. Barretto also had a scene asleep in bed seductively writhing in a short negligee. This scene was intercut with another scene of her being raped by a ghost. Barretto's face was not seen here, so it might not be her.

Xian Lim mainly played Raffy constantly on edge and stressed out, as his character was beset with legal problems and jealousy. Marco Gumabao's Raffy was just leading a laidback lifestyle as a civil servant, until Jane's unexpected return triggered long dormant feelings in him. Veteran indie character actress Erlinda Villalobos was right at home playing the creepy Aling Ising, lending any scene an uncomfortable vibe whenever she was onscreen.

In telling his story, Brilliante Mendoza slowly panned his shaky camera to focus incidentally on various old photographs and close-ups of nameless people to effectively create an atmosphere of dread, with that understated eerie score. However, the entire opening sequence at the construction site and seeing those townspeople in their windows, all turned out to be all done only for style, but ultimately inconsequential to the story.

The progression of the main story was interrupted by long unnecessary details, like the house tour by the Casa Manila guys, the argumentative man at the municipal hall, and Raffy's troubles with malversation of government funds, just to fluff up the haunted house story.

I would have appreciated it better if Mendoza told us more about the Japanese soldier and the Flipina girl who loved him. That should have been the heart of the story.

This review was originally published in the author's blog, "Fred Said."