The film had impressive special effects, rendered by computer graphics. It also had an array of beautiful costumes. Except for the manananggal (half-bodied creature) who looked silly. The sound effects were also magnificent, and magnified the effect of suspenseful moments in the film. Jaime Fabregas did a good performance as some kind of researcher who was coerced by evil forces to do their bidding. And Mylene Dizon was a convincing manananggal, that you would definitely get shivers being with her with the way she looked and acted. It was rather smart of them to make the manananggal be a longganisa maker at the same time, so as to play with the grisly effect of her role. Unfortunately, that's the least good I can say about this film.
The story is lame and has obvious resemblances to The Mummy Returns. To make it worse, the story as to the what, when, why of the villain character is never revealed. It never even attempts to break the stereotypes. It was a moronic story which never made much sense. Who was that corpse that the researcher was trying to resurrect? Why was she so angry? When resurrected, what did she intend to do? Why was Maria Makiling there all of a sudden? Who was the father of the central character? Why is it that the manananggal was also working for the main villain? Was she really collecting hearts for the main villain, or just having her nightly appetite? The characters had no dimension. The film was a virtual idiotic.
Bong Revilla Jr. could also use some basic acting workshop. The dubbing was obvious. The sequencing also bad. The sudden appearance of two cruel fellows hurting a leper in some forest on an evening never made sense. Bong Revilla himself is a major stain in the film. Why such a bad actor take on three roles? He plays the (butod) hero in a roman armor, the old janitor, and the leper who was rescued by the main character. I remember him preaching that piracy damages the film industry by depriving actors and actresses with jobs. But on this film he unfairly takes on two extra roles, which could have been jobs for two other people.
