By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Rico Maria Ilarde
Starring: Andi Eigenmann | Baron Geisler | Janice de Belen | JM de Guzman | Joel Torre | Ronnie Lazaro
Original language title: Pridyider
Country: philippines
Year: 2013
Running time: 90
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2378000/combined
Kyle says: “The North American Premiere of PRIDYIDER (FRIDGE) was presented under the New York Asian Film Festival rubric of ‘Manila Chronicles: The New Filipino Cinema.’ Yes, it’s about a refrigerator that kills people. And it’s so clear-headed and good-natured about it that you go with it, even if it is just about the most ridiculous idea for a horror movie since a 1958 red Plymouth Fury that killed people in CHRISTINE (1983), based on a Stephen King novel. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the kitchen…
“Tina returns from life in the U.S. to the Philippines and the home of her parents, who have died under mysterious and horrible circumstances, but nobody will tell her what they are. Their house is both haunted and horrible — anybody in their right mind would check into the nearest motel immediately. But it’s her parents’ place, and the fridge gives off a comfortable hum, even if that hum increasingly sounds like a growl, with the large ‘Y’ on it suggesting both eyes and a mouth. The first knock on the door is a crazy man yelling at her to get out of the house ASAP, and he is rewarded for his efforts with mace sprayed in his eyes. The first fridge victim is the next-door neighbor’s cat, introducing us to the fridge’s POV shots of the kitchen and its visitors, as well as that Filipino delicacy ‘Pasta with Pussy.’ Jokes both visual and textual fly left, right and center, from puns on ‘roots’ to the references to tentacles in a berserk squid recipe or straight out of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Cthulhu’ mythology in and out of this fridge from Hell.
“Although there are numerous shots inside the fridge of heads (with eyes moving), arms, legs, and blood everywhere, including in bottles that used to contain healthy fruit or vegetable juices, Tina refuses to believe mounting anecdotal evidence that her mother murdered her father and butchered and ate women she accused of having had sex with him. A creepy blackmailing shyster lawyer is the second fridge victim, spawning a creeping hand with eyes and claws referencing THE THING (1982). A male acquaintance from LA who travels much too far for a romantic relationship with Tina is rewarded by being eaten, special relish being reserved for his penis. In desperation, Tina summons a local shaman who conducts not so much an exorcism as a wholesale basement cleaning straight out of Lovecraft’s 1927 novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
“I forgot to mention that Tina attempts to replace the haunted fridge with a sleek new model, but the old one won’t move and sucks the juices out of the new one, by which I mean the electricity, I think, much as a vampire would in another genre of horror movie. And the witty program notes praise director Ilarde for cracking open ‘the Tupperware of terror to offer some juicy leftovers.’ 3 cats
“Wednesday, July 10, 2013, New York Asian Film Festival at the Walter Reade Theater, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.”