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Movie Review: The Diplomat Hotel

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the-diplomat-hotelCAST: GRETCHEN BARRETTO, ART ACUNA, MON CONFIADO, JOEL TORRE, NICO ANTONIO, SARAH GAUGLER, CHANNEL DELATORRE, BROOKE CHANTELLE

DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER AD CASTILLO

SUMMARY: Victoria Lansang is a popular news reporter who has been requested to mediate a hostage crisis. And in front of a national television audience, something horribly goes wrong and people are killed while Victoria suffers a mental breakdown. A year later, she’s eager to get back into the game. However, the only assignment she can get is to do a documentary on the last night of The Diplomat Hotel in Baguio City, a crumbling and abandoned building infamously known for its bloody past and its hauntings. Looking for redemption, she arrives there with her crew and they start filming. But as they get deeper into the night, the place starts to exert its will on them and they find out exactly what monstrous evil awaits at The Diplomat Hotel.  By daybreak, their lives will never be the same again.  (http://www.cinemalaya.org/films/new-breed/diplomat-hotel)

  1. Must be hard being the son of a famous filmmaker. Christopher Ad Castillo shares not just the name of his father but also his initials. The Kid’s kid’s The Diplomat Hotel is not the kind of film that’ll endear him to the critics and the audience. The conceptual framework of the film is present but its execution fails. Recent local horror flicks measured from passable to exceptional. This is the problem of The Diplomat Hotel: it’ll be compared to other films and its genre and will be adjudged as mediocre.
  2. I am not sure if choosing a real-life (or said to be real) haunted house is an inspired decision. This’ll just raise expectations of people to unrealistic levels. (Though if this is a mainstream production then the press release machine will churn stories of paranormal experiences of the cast and crew to drumbeat public interest. So predictable.) However, one cannot ignore the “character” of the location – IT IS CREEPY. An experience director will take advantage  of the inherent “character” of the abandoned hotel. I mean, it is just fair to expect a “tour” of the place since it is the the title of the film. Gimme nooks and crannies and not just facades and fountains. This is better than shots of killer stilettos.
  3. Speaking of killer stilettos, the biggest problem of The Diplomat Hotel is the acting – not the cast. GRETCHEN BARRETTO’s character is a trouled host on the road to reclaim her career. She gets a second chance and walked the road of redemption in ankle-breaking heels. That must hurt a lot. (In the latter part of the movie, she donned flats. As to where and how she got hold of a pair of comfortable shoes remains a mystery.) The point is, no actress can fully redeem Barretto’s character because its conceptualization is ill. Ditto for the other actors. Confession time: ART ACUNA is the real reason I placed the film under “must-see.” Before I go insane fangirl, let me put in record, MON CONFIADO is also a dependable actor even in terrible movies. The hell happened to both of them?!
  4. I have not moved on: worst use of stilettos ever. 
  5. The Diplomat Hotel is one of the weakest entries in the annual indie fest. Suffering from bad script and mediocre acting, it fails on almost all levels. THAT IT IS NOT EVEN HALF-SCARY COMPOUNDS THE PROBLEM. Indie films are supposed to be out-of-the-box-projects but The Diplomat Hotel looked and felt like a poorly executed mainstream movie. To end on a hopeful note, Christopher Ad Castillo, unlike his film, can still redeem himself in future projects. He carries the genetic make-up of the man responsible for Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara. So surprise us.

RATING: C+



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