The Curse of the Bad Horror Movie
There’s a special place in cinematic purgatory reserved for horror movies that manage to be both confusing and dull — a place where ghosts yawn, jump scares miss their cue, and the audience quietly checks their phones to see how much longer this haunting will last. Pwera Usog (2017), directed by Jason Paul Laxamana, proudly earns its spot in that afterlife.
The title, roughly translating to “Go away, curse!”, sounds like what you’ll be shouting at the screen after 20 minutes. Produced by Regal Entertainment, this Filipino supernatural flick takes a rich piece of local folklore — the superstition of usog (a curse caused by a stranger’s greeting) — and turns it into a 90-minute episode of “Teens Who Deserved It.”
It’s a movie about curses, faith healers, and internet pranks. Unfortunately, the scariest thing about it is how much potential it wastes.
The Plot: #CursedContent
Our story begins with Jean (Sofia Andres), a teenage prankster who documents her “hilarious” antics online — because apparently tormenting random strangers for internet clout is just good clean fun. Accompanied by her equally insufferable friends, Bobby (Albie Casiño) and Val (Cherise Castro), she heads to an abandoned building to film yet another prank.
There, they stumble upon a homeless woman — because in horror movies, “homeless” automatically means “plot device.” They scare her, she jumps off a ledge in terror, and the group flees, shaken but not enough to stop uploading videos for likes. But when they return to check on the body, surprise! No corpse.
That’s when things start getting spooky — or at least, supposed to. Jean starts seeing shadow figures, hearing noises, and looking as terrified as her acting range allows. Bobby gets killed by a toilet (yes, you read that correctly), and Val survives an attack thanks to her trusty childhood amulet, proving once again that accessories save lives.
Jean eventually seeks help from Minda (Aiko Melendez), a local albularyo (faith healer) and her apprentice Quintin (Kiko Estrada), who explain that the curse comes from Catalina (Eula Valdes), an evil witch who preys on children and occasionally moonlights as a knock-off The Ring villain. Catalina once possessed Luna (Devon Seron), Quintin’s sister — who, plot twist, turns out to be the same homeless woman Jean pranked earlier.
It all leads to a battle between Jean and Catalina in the “spirit dimension,” which looks suspiciously like a fog machine convention at a cosplay event. Minda dies nobly, Jean inherits her powers, Catalina is vanquished, and Luna gets freed. Everyone’s happy — except the audience, who’s left wondering why we didn’t just rewatch Feng Shui.
Just when you think it’s over, Jean goes on a date, sees another homeless girl, and — wouldn’t you know it — the shadow ghost returns. The curse lives on, and so does your regret.
Characters: The Real Victims Here
Jean, our protagonist, is a living PSA for why some people don’t deserve Wi-Fi. Sofia Andres gives it her all, but her character is written with all the emotional complexity of a wet napkin. One minute she’s filming cruel pranks, the next she’s channeling her inner exorcist. Her “redemption arc” lands with the same impact as a soft breeze.
Her friends fare even worse. Bobby exists only to die via toilet water — truly a career highlight — and Val exists to scream fashionably while surviving longer than her relevance. Sherwin (Joseph Marco), Jean’s love interest, contributes nothing except being a warm body in scenes that require someone to look concerned.
Kiko Estrada as Quintin is meant to be the brooding mystic type, but mostly looks like he wandered in from a shampoo commercial. Aiko Melendez, as Minda, does her best to inject gravitas into the chaos, but her character’s noble death feels less “emotional climax” and more “contractually obligated exit.”
The only truly engaging performance comes from Eula Valdes as Catalina, the witch. She slinks through the film like she knows she’s too good for it — which she is. Valdes brings real menace to an otherwise uninspired script, but even her scenes are undercut by bargain-bin CGI and lighting that looks like it was done by candlelight and regret.
Scares: Ghosts by PowerPoint
For a movie about curses and possession, Pwera Usog is surprisingly tame. The scares are predictable, the pacing uneven, and the jump scares arrive like drunk guests — late, loud, and unwelcome.
The “shadow entity” haunting Jean looks like it escaped from a low-budget Halloween attraction, complete with jerky movements and overexposed lighting. The “spirit world” scenes rely heavily on green-tinted filters and slow-motion sequences that make you wish you could enter another dimension — one without this movie.
Even the sound design can’t save it. Every supposed scare is telegraphed by a blaring violin shriek or bass drop that screams, “BE AFRAID NOW.” By the third act, you’re not scared; you’re Pavlov’s dog waiting for the next loud noise.
Themes: Hashtag Moral Lesson
Somewhere buried under the layers of bad editing and inconsistent tone, Pwera Usog tries to say something meaningful about social media culture and Filipino superstition. It wants to warn us about the dangers of online pranking, the loss of empathy, and the ancient curses you unleash when you disrespect the old ways.
Unfortunately, it delivers that message with the subtlety of a Facebook mom post. The film hammers home its “lesson” — don’t prank strangers, kids! respect folklore! — with all the finesse of a haunted moral science class. By the time Jean tearfully vows to stop being a prankster, the audience is mostly just vowing to stop watching.
Direction: Found Footage of Lost Potential
Jason Paul Laxamana’s direction is earnest but chaotic. He’s clearly trying to blend contemporary teen culture with traditional Filipino horror, but the mix never gels. The movie shifts tone like a possessed TikTok algorithm — one moment satire, the next melodrama, and occasionally something resembling horror.
There are glimpses of what could have been a clever modern folk tale — a story about superstition meeting the digital age. But instead of exploring that, the film relies on overused tropes, sluggish exposition, and chase scenes that look like they were shot with a potato.
The cinematography doesn’t help. Every scene is either too dark to see or too bright to care. The CGI ranges from “serviceable” to “PlayStation 2 cutscene.” And the editing… well, let’s just say it feels cursed.
Cultural Roots, Shallow Soil
Filipino folklore is a treasure trove of rich, creepy material — from aswangs to white ladies to tikbalangs. The concept of usog itself is genuinely fascinating: a real-life belief about curses transmitted through envy or careless greetings. Done right, Pwera Usog could have been a terrifying exploration of modern superstition colliding with online culture.
Instead, it treats usog like a hashtag gimmick. The movie’s tagline might as well be: “Pwera logic, pwera subtlety.”
Final Thoughts: “Go Away, Curse!” — and Take the Script With You
Pwera Usog is a film cursed not by evil spirits, but by mediocrity. It’s not bad enough to be funny, nor good enough to be memorable. It’s just… there, haunting your watchlist like a ghost that can’t move on because it knows it deserves better.
You’ll leave the film not scared, but confused — wondering why the toilet death got more screen time than character development, and why every haunting seems to come with a lecture.
In the end, the real moral is clear: sometimes the most merciful exorcism is the “stop” button on your remote.
Final Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
(One out of five cursed hashtags — a horror movie so lifeless it needs a faith healer of its own.)
