a boy and his field notes
yapping (a lot) about horror: @deepcutshorror
writing (not enough) about ph cinema: @unreelph
Articles by Armando Dela Cruz
Cinemalaya 2025 Shorts, reviewed - True indie mix
THIS YEAR’S CINEMALAYA has been pretty hectic for me. I’ve pushed past thirty officially this year, meaning four-film marathons a day is about as daunting as a Spartan Race that my friends have officially failed coaxing me into joining in my twenties. But there’s renewed comfort in knowing I’m completing another local film festival again, and writing about it. At a snail’s pace, but still. Unreel is partially reader-funded.
Lav Diaz's historical epic 'Magellan' premieres at Cannes 2025
CANNES 2025 MADE AN UPDATE on its Official Selection with sixteen new titles to make premiere, including Lav Diaz’s much-anticipated film about explorer Ferdinand Magellan, simply titled Magellan. Magellan’s quest would lead to the first successful circumnavigation of the earth in the 16th Century and a violent end in a gruesome clash in Cebu against the Filipino datu, Lapu-Lapu.
'Sinners' shows big fangtasia
THE BLUES AREN’T THE SAME in Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s soulful foray into period horror, a genre so few people, if at all, would associate with his work. That being said, the film, set against a Southern backdrop so obstinately Jim Crow, is most identifiably his, replete with striking Black imagery and well-observed critiques of America’s racist roots — like if Colson Whitehead wrote a bluesy rendition of Demon Night or Assault on Precinct 13.
'Immaculate' & other horrors — Field Notes (From Hell!) #18
Salutations, horror fans! You’re getting this Holy Week edition of the newsletter. Jesus Christ hath died and three days later hath again risen. Dost thou want a fresh dispatch…from Hell?! It’s a perfect coincidence that this week, we’re looking into Michael Mohan’s Immaculate, a Catholic horror that slides Sydney Sweeney into the habit as a nun seemingly going through immaculate conception. Plus, this week’s horror recs! Deep Cuts is a reader-supported publication.
'Stopmotion' & other horrors
Hello, horror hounds! New week, new dispatch…from hell! This week, we’re tackling Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion, a British chiller following a stop-motion artist in the throes of hysteria as she crafts her first film. Deep Cuts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
'Frogman' & other horrors
Salutations, fellow horror fans! New week. New dispatch…from hell! This week, I’m trying out the new format/structure for Field Notes (From Hell!) I was talking about last week. — This week’s email is brought to you by Amazon Prime Video — watch thousands of horror films, including Amazon Original titles like Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 Suspiria remake. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today. THERE’S A DEGREE OF SELF-AWARENESS required for films like Anthony Cousins’ Frogman to work. It’s a fine balance.
'Monolith' & other horrors
SO MUCH OF WHAT HAPPENED in 2023 helped illuminate my 2024. I opened the year by reading that humans only get to live about four thousand weeks, and I alerted myself to the fact that I’ve already lived a fourth of that. I’ve since spun down a spiral of rethinking how I might allocate the very finite resources of life. Deep Cuts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
'Bad Things' happen here
WOMEN DO BAD THINGS AT the Comley Suites, an off-road, three-story day inn that witnessed a handful of bizarre murders throughout the years. If the setting — a sullen, visibly unkempt lodging (only vaguely haunted by ghosts but most definitely by liminal decor) — feels like it echoes The Shining, it’s because it does. Stewart Thorndike doesn’t hide this.
The familial terrors of 'Cobweb'
A DISEMBODIED, HARPY-LIKE VOICE whispers within Peter’s walls. Anyone who's read Poe would resist the idea of keeping an open line with whatever's inside. But Peter's nightly terrors project a horrifically probable truth: his parents are harboring secrets so sinister they're willing to go to insidious lengths to keep them from being exposed. The voice, in effect, becomes Peter's ostensible respite in a world riddled with nasty tormentors, young and old.
'Talk To Me': Dare me to hell
ANY THOUGHTFUL LAMENTATION ON MODERN GRIEF in a horror film will inevitably live in the shadow of Ari Aster’s Hereditary. So few films have ascribed their horrors with the same level of nuance or verve. Only a couple of films have since come out with that same pervading sense of dread: Aster’s next film, Midsommar, and David Bruckner’s excellent supernatural thriller, The Night House. Albeit not as straight-faced as those films, Talk To Me is also about grief.
'The Boogeyman' keeps real horrors shut
STEPHEN KING’S EIGHTEEN-PAGE FEVER DREAM about parental neglect is tucked neatly in a collection called Night Shift, the author’s first and most seminal. It unravels all in one psychiatric visit, with Lester Billings, a downtrodden and dubious character, unpacking the tragic events of his unenviable life. He shares with Dr. Harper how he has lost, in unbelievable succession, all three of his children, and why, despite their deaths being accidental in nature, he feels ultimately at fault.
This is not a cult
Deep Cuts began as a newsletter sent exclusively to friends. But after my last email, I've seen a steady ripple of new subscribers. I thought I should herd this (as of writing, small) sample of very cool people somewhere there’s a semblance of community. I’m hoping that everyone will mingle and happily discuss horror media on these channels. As of email time, I have two things for you: 1.) the Substack Chat feature, and 2.) a Discord server.
'M3GAN': Configured for world domination
In a word, the internet went insane when M3GAN first hit the airwaves. Clad in a preppy, Overlook-esque beige number, the eponymous synthetic droid chasséd all over pop consciousness with a marketing team’s rolodex of memes at the ready. Like all others, I stopped what I was doing and pushed the excitement back down my belly when I first heard about it. The earth stood still — as it damn well should.
Why is horror cinema undecorated?
I was of the camp that awards don’t matter. But the buzz and laurels breathe long life, if not immortality, into a film. With this year’s horror snubs — think Mia Goth in X, Jordan Peele in Nope (not even for something as objective as Sound Design, really?), and what about Mad God?! — it nudges me to ask: how long will we let horror be the ever-unwelcome guest in film awards? Looking forward to hearing your answers. Spill your guts after the bump.
‘Nanahimik ang Gabi’ review by Armando Dela Cruz • Letterboxd
Nanahimik ang Gabi 2022 ★★★ Armando Dela Cruz’s review published on Letterboxd: Shuga Praico's Nanahimik ang Gabi leads to interesting and unexpected turns. Can't say that the The Strangers-esque story it decides to weave onto an EJK-riddled background isn't a nauseating mix, but somewhere — between the ensemble's committed performances and the film's red-eyed ACAB, anti-tokhang rhetoric — it clicks. Ian Veneracion is unflinching, even more so than Mon Confiado.
‘Deleter’ review by Armando Dela Cruz • Letterboxd
Deleter 2022 ★★ Armando Dela Cruz’s review published on Letterboxd: Typical for Mikhail Red's films, Deleter is technically well-made. Great visuals, and even greater sound design. The premise is ripe, but the story feels too contained and lacks the space to be an effective character study and facilitate a nuanced discourse about malicious acts of expunction. Ironically, a film about censorship and workplace suppression seems unsure of what to conceal and what to unravel. Delete. Ignore. Ad infinitum.
βSkinamarinkβ review by Armando Dela Cruz • Letterboxd
Skinamarink 2022 β
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Β½ Armando Dela Cruzβs review published on Letterboxd: Glad that Westerners are catching up to the unique and vibe-y stylings brought by π―π²π·πͺπ·π¬π²πͺπ΅ π΅π²πΆπ²π½πͺπ½π²πΈπ·πΌ. That said, I think I've seen some form of this in one of those interchangeable horror shorts that routinely prop up in local film festivals; only those films are marginally better. Block or Report
QCinema 2022 enlivens cinemagoing with beautiful lineup of films
2022 marks a decade of programming for QCinema, a film festival whose sights have always been set restlessly on bigger things. For ten years, it has leaned onto its mantra — "One city to the world" — and continually brought fresh and popular imports, be it festival jewels or lesser-known deep cuts. This is, of course, on top of giving Filipino filmmakers grants and exclusive rights to their films. This year is no different.
TBA Studios brings Chie Hayakawa's 'Plan 75' to PH theaters
Plan 75 — Chie Hayakawa's acclaimed dystopic vision of a super-aged Japanese population — is docking on Philippine shores through TBA Studios, which acquired the exclusive Philippines theatrical rights to the film. The film joins TBA's small but significant foreign film catalog, which includes last year's Everything Everywhere All at Once and this year's upcoming Triangle of Sadness, which won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes.
PELíCULA>PELíKULA returns to onsite screenings in Manila
After two online editions, PELíCULA — the Spanish film festival created by the Instituto Cervantes de Manila — returns to face-to-face FREE screenings for its 21st edition. The festival happens from October 5th through 16th, 2022.
'Nope' review - Why we can't look away
This post originally appeared in my horror newsletter, Deep Cuts. It’s always been part of human nature to be bound to the untypical. We’re beholden to things even just a little out of place. And endlessly subjected to life’s repeating patterns, we often seek the anomalies. We desire the thrill of escaping mundaneness and gazing beyond the ordinary. Long before pictures could move, a kind of compulsion to spectacle has always predicated our lives.
'Nope' and the elusive Oprah shot
It’s always been part of human nature to be bound to the untypical. We’re beholden to things even just a little out of place. And endlessly subjected to life’s repeating patterns, we often seek the anomalies. We desire the thrill of escaping mundaneness and gazing beyond the ordinary. Long before pictures could move1, a kind of compulsion to spectacle has always predicated our lives.
Unpacking 'What Josiah Saw'
Unfolding at a pace and with a resolve akin to those of a William Faulkner novel — if one were to deal with ghosts, the occult, and folklore — Vincent Grashaw’s What Josiah Saw doesn't exactly take the shape of a modern horror film. It’s a slow, pensive, and ultimately tragic piece of Southern Gothic that pays its languishings and indulgences in full. Set in a deadbeat Oklahoman town, the film follows the Grahams as they each try to reconcile their traumatic pasts.
Terrors from the deep
Good evening. After kicking off my descent into the world’s nastiest films and videos (#DisturbingDescent), my mind sailed adrift in the unnerving world of thalassophobic horror. As someone with this very rational fear (whoever considers thalassophobia an ‘irrational’ fear is coked out of their mind), I am terrified by the monsters and secrets lurking beneath uncharted sea depths. And these six films confront those secrets in vivid, interesting ways. 🦑 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea 1961, dir.
A disturbing descent
It’s ironic that I — someone with a bad case of thalassophobia — have decided to partake in a ‘challenge’ that explores unknown depths. I’m not descending to our oceans’ deeper trenches, of course. I’m talking about one of Reddit’s most wicked brood, an iceberg chart of the world’s most disturbing movies, from The Human Centipede to Black Metal Vein.
When 'Prey' fights back
Of the ‘Big Three’ sci-fi-horror franchises, Predator films have always had more modest ambitions. No excess breath is drawn to lay down the basics of its rather simplistic theses; no queries about mechanical uprisings, no pontifications about the Creation of Life.
The slasher-ification of 'Pretty Little Liars'
Pretty Little Liars came out in 2010 with a premise ripped right off the pages of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Only this time, the main baddie terrorized their victims, not with a pointy end of a hook but with the alphabet. It’s a complete tween-ification of the premise — a true, C.W. special. This new reboot from HBO Max, titled Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, embraces the slasher aspect of the story.
Ti West's 'X' gets a twisted prequel
Immediately after the success of Ti West's psychosexual retro-slasher pastiche, X, A24 has already gone to work preparing for the release of Pearl, a prequel that unspools the unhinged history of X's main antagonist. The first trailer for Pearl is up now. And it looks...promising. X is a finely crafted exhibit of West's ability to conjure effective frights alongside character nuance. That film cast Mia Goth as Maxine, a final girl who happens to be an adult film neophyte.
'Isang Salaysay ng Karahasang Pilipino' first trailer drops
Fans have keenly awaited Isang Salaysay ng Karahasang Pilipino, Lav Diaz's retelling of National Artist for Literature Ricky Lee's Palanca award-winning short story, Servando Magdamag — and now, we get our official first look at the film. The three-minute preview, posted a few days ago (can't find any excuse as to why I've found out about this just now), acknowledges that the film is a "sine-nobela," alluding to its six-hour and forty-nine-minute length.
Origins' is a ghastly clickbait
By Armando Dela Cruz Netflix's first-ever foray to J-horror belabors the origins of a familiar ghoul. The curse of every Ju-On property since its debut in 1999 with Ju-On: The Curse is its abstraction. Unlike other horror franchises, the Ju-On movies didn't have a poster monster to speak of - though many would appoint the contorted crawler Kayako from the...
'Fresh' is a flatulent dark comedy about modern dating
By Armando Dela Cruz Mimi Cave's ' Fresh' isn't afraid of loud and bold flavors, leaving those daring enough to partake with an indescribable taste in their mouths. Fresh is much attuned to its own sound. Somewhere in its frenzy of flavors is a palette - laid bare - that feels very much cleansing...
The Unreel Guide to Cinemalaya 2022
For the first time in three years, Cinemalaya is returning to in-person screenings. Programmed under the banner mantra "Breaking Through the Noise," Cinemalaya 2022 finds its way back home to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), a venue that has served as the tryst for the festival's patrons. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the past two Cinemalaya editions had been limited, online runs, programming only mostly short films.
Unreeling a redefined vision
Cinema is hard-coded in history and culture. It is an inscription etched literally with sweat, blood, and tears. Though it changes form constantly, it remains a big part of a very much Filipino way of life. It should surprise nobody, then, that movies and filmmaking prove efficient weapons in the disinformationist's arsenal. Examples go as far back as the Japanese colonial period, but modern-day efforts feel more consorted — crueler.
'The Nowhere Inn' review - Unwritten memoirs
At a turning point in The Nowhere Inn, a woman, clad in bright-colored latex, quips to the camera. “This is how rockstars act in movies,” she says, cigarette in hand. Scratch that, she tells the film crew. She can do better. So she does, this time with intensity welling out of her razor-sharp leer and well-toned visage. The film then cuts to a handsomely shot 16mm footage of her onstage performance. The music envelopes this moment with an atmosphere fit for a bona fide rockstar.
Ruben Östlund's 'Triangle of Sadness' is coming to PH theaters
Fresh off its Palm d’Or win at the Festival de Cannes 2022, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness docks on Philippine shores, with TBA Studios securing the rights to distribute the film. Taking to their Twitter account, TBA Studios says: Triangle of Sadness made waves after its premiere, where critics raved about its sharp, queasy ruminations on class politics.
Existential trapdoors
Welcome to Field Notes From Hell—the weekly roundup email from my twisted newsletter, Deep Cuts. Each dispatch contains key horror news, thoughts on recent horror films, and personal life updates. Here are this week’s Field Notes: The Japanese remake of Cube is rather…pointed I wouldn’t call Vincenzo Natali’s 1997 cult fave, Cube, a perfect film. It has way too much on its mind for its minimalist get-up: a claustrophobic cube of cubes that confine deathly traps and half-written characters.
A lot to be mad about
Welcome to Field Notes From Hell—the weekly roundup email from my twisted newsletter, Deep Cuts. Each dispatch contains key horror news, thoughts on recent horror films, and personal life updates. Here are this week’s Field Notes: Master is a cloud of frustration about equity Mariana Diallo’s film, Master, pulls its frustrations neatly into a piece that, unlike Jordan Peele’s Get Out, nestles on the cushions of defeatism. It never tips over indignation, of course.
Wayward times
Welcome to Field Notes From Hell—the weekly roundup email from my twisted newsletter, Deep Cuts. Each dispatch contains key horror news, thoughts on recent horror films, and personal life updates. Here are this week’s Field Notes: From is a Lost-esque mystery with bite Speculative TV seems hell-bent on reliving the glory (and eventual strife) brought by Lost. Between this and Yellowjackets, the interest for weird, communal mysteries has all but resurged.
Show me a smile
Fresh is much attuned to its own sound. Somewhere in its frenzy of flavors is a palette, laid bare, that feels very much cleansing. The premise of an artsy, young woman navigating the hive of a-Bumblin’ dimwits until she eventually meets “a ridiculously cute” man who will sweep her off her feet can turn ugly real quick in the wrong hands. But in the hands of director Mimi Cave and screenwriter Lauryn Kahn, the film feels immovable about its stand. Men. Are. Pigs. Eh…somewhat literally.
'Ready Player One' and the imminence of the metaverse
In a move that feels like a last-ditch moment of futurism cosplay, Facebook announced in October 2021 that the new meta in social media wars was to rebrand as — simply — Meta. No longer is Mark Zuckerberg in the business of fondling your personal data in the real world; instead, he will do it in a virtual world of his own.
The Unreel guide to the 2021 Metro Manila Film Festival
The 47th Metro Manila Film Festival is happening, comic book fanboy tantrums notwithstanding. Kicking off with a parade with actual ‘floats’ along Pasig River in Guadalupe, MMFF 2021 is set, like QCinema, to help PH cinemas bounce back after two years of shutdown. The film festival happens from December 25, 2021 to January 7, 2022. To this end, the festival created a lineup of eight films. Though it isn’t free of typical MMFF fodder, there are some interesting titles Filipinos can enjoy in theaters.
'The Man Who Isn't There and Other Stories of Longing': Candid sadness
Rappler Act One presents Trishtan Perez’s ‘The Man Who Isn’t There and Other Stories of Longing,’ a story told from the perspective of a stationary camera If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then the camera is our looking glass. In Trishtan Perez’s The Man Who Isn’t There and Other Stories of Longing, that point is made most apparent.
Dispatches from QCinema 2021: #QCShorts, reviewed
As they have for the Devil, people have given the coronavirus pandemic many names. ‘Miss Rona’ has been dubbed ‘The Great Revealer,’ cast in the role of harbinger of ‘The New Normal,’ in which we’ve had no choice but to take part for two anxiety-ridden years.
Rappler Game Night: 'Crab Game'
Join us on Friday, December 3, 9 pm as we duke it out in the wacky video game parody of Netflix's 'Squid Game' Right on the heels of Squid Game‘s success on Netflix, YouTuber and video game developer DaniDev made an unabashed parody game of the show. Titled Crab Game, it follows the same last-person-standing mechanic of the Netflix original, complete with Fall Guys-like puzzles that, like in the series, require guts…literally.
The Unreel Guide to QCinema International Film Festival 2021
QCinema 2021 comes stacked with titles to welcome moviegoers in their slow and safe return to movie theaters. Sections will showcase new Filipino visions, Asian shorts, and acclaimed exports fresh from the international festival circuits. It is, as festival director Ed Lejano calls it, “a gift.” This year, QCinema is going to screen with a hybrid setup. Some titles will be available both online (via KTX.ph) and in theaters; others will exclusively screen at the Gateway Cineplex 10.
Pervision #20: Five Films: Filipino Horror (ft. Chris Costello)
This week, we’re debuting our first-ever pod segment, ‘Five Films,’ a series of episodes where we bring on guests and ask them their top five recommendations on a certain film category. In this episode, we’ve brought on Chris Costello (from the Dead Air podcast) to share his #FiveFilms for Philippine horror movies. About our guest Chris Costello is a co-host of the horror podcast, Dead Air. He also co-pilots the Facebook community of the same name.
‘Halloween Kills’ review — Legacy killers - Unreel
The Halloween films have always stood immovable in their insistence that Michael Myers is an evil force. So, when Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), the young boy Laurie Strode was babysitting that fateful night in 1979, called on to Haddonfield to mob up and vanquish The Shape, it makes sense. Or at least it should. Except, in Halloween Kills, it doesn’t. Post-Capitol, it’s hard to take anyone calling for a riot seriously, especially when the matchup is as grossly uneven as it is here.
QCinema 2021 unveils entries to Asian Shorts lineup
QCinema 2021 has just announced the entries to its Asian Shorts program, one that hopes to “shine a spotlight on emerging Asian names in the festival circuit.” Among the entries are two Filipino films having their Philippine premieres: Rafael Manuel’s Filipiñana and Petersen Vargas’ How To Die Young In Manila. Following a ‘hybrid’ setup this year, QCinema is all-set to bring the film fest experience to Pinoy cinephiles.
Pervision #19: 'Squid Game' (ft. Tristan & Jason)
This week, we’re talking about Netflix’s currently most-watched title, South Korea’s Squid Game. The new Netflix Original South Korean series, Squid Game, took the world by storm. It’s a story about capitalism, spectatorship, and the illusion of choice. In today’s discussion, we are joined with two friends of the pod, Tristan and Jason. 📢 NEW EPISODES EVERY OTHER SUNDAY @ 9 p.m., PST📢 About today’s guests Tristan Zinampan is a writer, editor, podcaster, and Rappler’s resident film geek.
Pervision #18: 'OTJ: The Missing 8', 'Midnight Mass' (ft. Tristan & Jason)
This week, we’re taking on Erik Matti’s On The Job: The Missing 8 and Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass. Erik Matti’s long-gestating On The Job: The Missing 8 wrapped its first season at HBO GO today; and Netflix has dropped one of its best shows of this year, Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass. Armand sits down with Tristran Zinampan and Jason Tan Liwag to discuss! About today’s guests Tristan Zinampan is a writer, editor, podcaster, and Rappler’s resident film geek.
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