The Nature Of Good And Evil In MALIGNO

Maligno

Maligno (Rosas Productions) unleashes a spell. Exploring the anxiety and anticipation of waiting, Celso Ad Castillo succeeds in painting an enduring image of motherly love. He surveys varied forms of stillness, immersing us in the well worn routines of daily life and re-living for us the enduring rituals of hope. The film ruminates on the nature of good and evil and its manifestations. In Maligno, Castillo finally masters the fluidity missing in his other films. Well lit and beautifully shot, the story fuse poetically evoking metaphors of life and death, of endings and beginnings in a manner so subdued it can be likened to the faintest movement of clouds shrouding a midday sun. Beginning with a seemingly displaced scene of a satanic ritual, we are quietly led to the hollow warmth of mercenary love. Narrative is patiently stitched together, segments of the story carved like niches into which perceived resolutions are effortlessly placed. We are drawn into the film because we are made to guess the fleeting shadows, the alarm clock's constant ringing, the all-seeing eye of Angela (Susan Roces) and husband Paolo (Dante Rivero), whether the film is any genre that is at all familiar, this evasiveness is Maligno’s lure. But it is much more than just the story, its brilliance comes more from Castillo's direction and from a series of genuinely inspired performances.

Castillo gives the viewer a great deal of information early in the story and by the the movie's halfway, we're pretty sure what's going on in Lucas' (Eddie Garcia) diabolical mind. When the conclusion comes, it works because it is horrifyingly inevitable. Angela makes her dreadful discovery and we are wrenched because we knew what was going to happen and couldn't help her. The characters and the story transcend the plot. In most horror films, the characters are at the mercy of the plot. In Maligno, they emerge as human beings. A great deal of credit for this achievement goes to Susan Roces as Angela Cortez and Celia Rodriguez as Blanca Garchitorena. And the interesting thing is how well they work together. Roces, an experienced professional and Rodriguez, almost previously untried in other movies. Because we can believe them, we find it possible to believe the fantastic demands that Lucas is eventually able to make on Angela. Castillo has also drawn a memorable performance from Eddie Garcia as the explicably sinister Lucas Santander. Dante Rivero is competent as Paolo, Angela's husband but not as certain of his screen identity as he was in 1974's Patayin Mo Sa Sindak Si Barbara. The best thing that can be said about Maligno is that it works. Castillo has taken a most difficult situation and made it believable, right up to the end. In this sense, he even outdoes himself. Both Maligno and Patayin are about women, deeply in love who gradually suspect the most sinister and improbable things. Maligno, is forced into the most bizarre suspicions and we share and believe them because Castillo exercises his craft so well. We follow him right up to the end and stand there, rocking that dreadful cradle.

Directed By: Celso Ad Castillo
Screenplay: Celso Ad Castillo And Dominador B. Mirasol
Director Of Photography: Loreto U. Isleta
Music By: Ernani Cuenco
Film Editor: Augusto Salvador
Production Designer: Peter Perlas
Produced By: Rosas Productions
Release Date: June 23, 1977