Guniguni (2012) User Reviews

The story had potential, but it was just never utilized...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 15 August 2013]

"Guniguni" (aka "Guni-Guni") is a Tagalog / Philippines horror movie, that in the end didn't turn out to be scary or particularly interesting. It was a shame, because the movie did have potential, but it just never managed to accomplish anything.

The story is about Mylene (played by Lovi Poe) who lives in an old house owned by a landlord with Alzheimer. There a five people and a mentally challenged kid living in this old house. Strange things start to happen and Mylene's past soon comes knocking, and she is no longer able to run away from it.

There were some interesting enough aspects to the storyline, and the part with the Siamese twins brought about a good addition to the story, but it was just a shame that the movie was so poorly directed and even more so badly acted.

"Guniguni" was a really boring and uninteresting Asian horror movie, that was nowhere near intensity or as scary as horror movies from Thailand, Japan or Korea. There is a fair amount of good movies coming from the Philippines, however these are usually romantic comedies, and so far I haven't seen an impressive horror movie to be released from Philippine cinema.

If you enjoy a good and scary horror movie, and if you are looking for an interesting Asian horror movie, then your money is better spent elsewhere, because "Guniguni" was neither of the aforementioned.

Very tame Filipino ghostliness

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 29 November 2017]

GUNIGUNI is another in the endless wave of cheap Tagalog-language ghost stories from the Philippines. These always have interesting settings and characters but barely any kind of horror content, and I find the older, more explicit, and more cheesy horror films from the region in the 1980s to be much more entertaining. This one has a haunted building with a house full of boarders assailed by a malignant baby spirit, but it feels very tame and drawn out, more like a soap opera than a horror flick.

A Few of the Scenes Needed a Bit More Suspense

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 29 September 2014]

"Mylene" (Lovi Poe) is a young intern who is striving to get her medical degree and lives in a boarding house with her best friend, "Joanna" (Empress Shuck) and several other people. She has a boyfriend, "Paolo" (Benjamin Alves) but because of intimacy issues she is unable to take her relationship to the next level which results in their splitting up. At the same time she begins having nightmares while others in the boarding house begin seeing apparitions of a little boy. Then things begin to take a serious turn for the worse. At any rate, for those who haven't seen the movie I will just say that I didn't consider this particular film to be that bad. To be fair, it was filmed in Tagalog and had English subtitles which might be a turnoff for some. More importantly, some of the graphic effects could have used improvement and a few of the scenes needed considerably more suspense. Even so, the movie managed to keep my attention for the most part. Additionally, I liked the performance of Lovi Poe and I certainly don't think she hurt the scenery in any way. Unfortunately, the faults were pretty hard to ignore and for that reason I rate the movie as slightly below average.