Chai Fonacier uses folk magic for revenge in the Irish-Filipino collaboration film Nocebo
Nocebo is a revenge battle between successful children clothes’ designer Christine (Eva Green) and Filipina housekeeper Diana (Chai Fonacier) with Irish director Lorcan Finnegan using faith healing and mystical creatures in an unsettling horror genre.
Will Eva Green, the Bond girl from Casino Royale, outshine Chai Fonacier of Patay na si Hesus fame?
The film centers on Christine who succumbs to a mysterious illness. She has memory loss and often hallucinations. She is dependent on so many pills and her doctor is clueless how to help her. Out of nowhere, petite Diana comes to the rescue and offers her services as a nanny-housekeeper. It was a good omen for Christine’s family. This Filipina helper brings relief as she takes care of their daughter Bobs, (Billie Gadsdon) and also cooks and cleans up the house.
Diana makes herself at home. There is something in her that gives calm to Christine. She makes potions and performs rituals for her employer’s healing. The relationship turns to co-dependence and “trust” is the prescription to Christine’s improved health.
The underutilized Mark Strong, who plays husband Felix, is having second thoughts on hiring Diana. He sees something fishy with the housekeeper’s manipulation of his household. A powerplay between Felix and Diana occurs. Who will Christine side?
The audience is given Diana’s back story in flashbacks as the young woman fled her province with her family due to armed insurgency, land grabbing, and unfair labor practices.
Back in the Philippines, Diana has a daughter who accompanies her to her workplace, where under conditions as harsh as those of a sweatshop she earns a below-minimum wage.
We would think that Diana, just like a typical OFW, is in the United Kingdom to lift her family out of poverty. But behind her concern for her employer is her revenge to correct Christine’s past mistakes.
There is a tick, a mysterious dog, a black bird, among other symbolisms that would give chills to the audience. Finnegan got Garret Shanley to write the screenplay that combines classic horror styles with social commentary on colonialism, consumer culture, and exploitation. Will this combination work? In Rotten Tomatoes, Nocebo got 65 percent in audience share and 67 percent in tomatometer.
The 96-minute English and Cebuano language film tends to move slow with the story development and the rituals are somewhat “romanticized.”
Chai’s character is effective as she gives the domestic setting of Eva’s family a very disturbing vibe. There is a change of guard as a new mambabarang is appointed by Diana.
Toward the closing credits, a statement “Justice for all Kentex fire victims” is scrolled onscreen. We recall the incident in Valenzuela, where 74 people were killed in the fire. Filmmaker Lorcan said in his last visit to Manila last month that “accidents happened all over the world due to capitalism” and his research on the Kentex incident inspired the film.
Nocebo, an Irish-Filipino co-production and cultural collaboration (watch out for the Budots dance music), is now showing in UK cinemas and online in the US and its territories.