One of the Philippines' most prolific directors, Mikhail Red, returns to the horror genre with Lilim, which had its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival earlier this month.
Fleeing an abusive home, Issa (Heaven Peralejo) and her young brother Tomas (Skywalker David) find themselves taking refuge in an isolated mountain orphanage run by nuns. Despite reassurances from the mysterious Sister Marga (Eula Valdez) that the pair are safe at Helping Hands, the strange behaviour of the children, bloody ritualistic practices, and whispers of a malevolent specter roaming the orphanage at night certainly suggest otherwise. While Lilim may hint at shadowy secrets lurking around corridor corners, sadly, none of them are enough to excite, delight, or scare, leaving the film to sit disappointingly as a bum note in Red's impressive filmography, especially when compared to his past efforts, notably the slick and sinister Deleter.
Any seasoned horror fan will be able to predict, even down to the timing of the many frustrating and cheap jump scares, the basic trajectory of Lilim from the first shot of an ominous mural on the orphanage wall. As Issa uncovers the secrets of the orphanage, Lilim attempts, admittedly admirably, to craft a tapestry of religious, cult, and creature horror, but sadly fails to do any of them effectively. And while Red usually has a knack for casting, despite Paralejo's best efforts to sink her teeth into what the watery script offers her, she ultimately ends up spending most of the movie running around looking concerned, with very little to boast in the way of characterization.
While Lilim is handsomely shot and features all the classic visual hallmarks of convent-set horror – white nightgowns, low lamplight, and hidden rooms – the overall aesthetics feel uninspired, pulled from stronger movies like Suspiria, Barbarian, Immaculate, or any of the other myriad watered-down nunsploitation efforts of the past few years. Combined with the tired story beats, Lilim is a film that ultimately fails to establish its own identity or bring anything fresh to the supernatural horror subgenre.
An official synopsis suggests that Lilim's background of martial law in the Philippines plays an important part in the narrative, yet it is scarcely referred to beyond a few throwaway lines or exposition-dump radio announcements. It's a shame, as this exploration of an important cultural context could have elevated Lilim above other similarly forgettable horror films of this ilk, but as it stands, it's a cut-and-paste effort, really offering nothing that you haven't seen before.
Lilim had its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival on 12 July
