Untold : What’s in the sisig?

Ruthless reporter Vivian Vera, star of her own investigative documentary series Untold, finds herself traumatized by her coverage of the most recent shocking story, which Vera believes cursed her and sends her into a spiral of her own dark past.

There’s a fair amount to unpack here, and since the movie isn’t told in a linear fashion, we get to try and puzzle out what’s real and what isn’t, what did or freaking did not actually just happen, right along with Vivian herself. The film is set in the Philippines, and yes, it is subtitled, so make sure your phone is set to record full video, and let’s dive into this!

We begin with Vivian Vera (Jodi Sta. Maria) and her somewhat faithful if dubious cameraman Benjie (Joem Bascon), hiding out in a dark, half-finished building structure, trying to get a scoop on some highly illegal practices going on by building developers. Instead, Viv and Benjie end up recording the murders of several poor folk who had been protesting the building development, and death by fresh cement is not fun, nor fast. Viv is so ruthless and so determined to get her scoop that she flat refuses to call the police, refuses to stop filming, and just refuses to do anything to help those poor people who are being semi-buried alive. Somehow, Viv and Benjie escape more or less unscathed, with her precious scoop footage, and now Vivian can break the whole story wide open in an Untold exclusive.

While that is in the works, however, Viv gets a visit from someone who seems to know her and not just know of her, a woman who smiles in a most pleasant if malicious fashion and slips a handmade bracelet onto Viv’s wrist, telling Viv she’ll now be able to see them, and often. Who them is, and how this creepy woman Diana (Angel Raymundo) knows Viv, we will find out in due course.

So here in the present Viv has definitely earned her impatient and remorseless reputation as a reporter willing to do anything to get that story, but in her past when Viv was just starting out, she struggled to permanently land that first gig. Her friendly rival and fellow reporter Elaine (Sarah Edwards) is also vying for the exact same job, and young Viv is struggling to land a scoop sensational enough to get her the job. Then Viv’s beloved mother Monica Vera (Gloria Diaz), who’s already struggling with her little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, gets diagnosed with cancer, and Viv needs to come up with a large amount of money for her miraculous surgery, but quick. And it turns out, right here at the beginning, Viv really is willing to lie, steal, and even kill to land that exclusive reporter gig.

But people are starting to notice Viv unraveling, even as she tries to get rid of the damned bracelet, convinced her nightmarish visions of ghosts and demons are just nightmares. Y’know, nightmares that are starting to accost her during the day, while she’s trying to work. Viv finds

herself breaking down and confessing her past sins to a psychiatrist, or swears she did, but since Viv’s reality is crumbling, whether she spilled the whole story about cooking a poor

kitty-cat or just stared into the void-space for five minutes, remains to be seen. And regardless of Viv’s own melting horror reality, other people around her are starting to actually die off, in some rather horrific fashions.

Finally, only poor crushing on Viv assistant camera-guy Jasper (Juan Karlos) is left to try and save Viv from, well, everything. Whether the ghosts and demons and even the curse itself is really-real, or all in Viv’s head, you can decide for yourself, but the final showdown that happens at the cement massacre location has frighteningly real potentiality. And Moxie thinks if the viewers have stuck around this long, they might be inclined to agree, ghosts or curses or whatever, Viv did bring this retribution on herself.

The makeup and practical FX for the film aren’t bad, slanted more towards the Asian version of demons and ghosts, of course. There are quite a few jump scares, perhaps a few more than totally necessary, but the performances given, especially by Maria as Viv herself, are really great and make this ironic little horror flick a trip worth taking. See if you agree, Viv got what she deserved. Watch Untold on Netflix now!