Move over, Charles Bronson of Death Wish, take a hike, Liam Neeson of Taken! Vilma Santos is now in the house. And she’s laying claim to the title of vigilante star, manifesting the role of mild-mannered widowed Mom on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice for the rape and murder of her only child/daughter. Uninvited is directed by Dan Villegas - his first full-length feature film in six years, with a screenplay from Dodo Dayao, and it’s an R-16 MMFF entry. 

Lilia (Vilma Santos) is a teacher and as grieving mom over the death of her Lily (Gabby Padilla); she assumes the persona of philanthropist Eva Candelaria to attend/infiltrate the birthday party of billionaire Guilly Vega (Aga Muhlach) at his residential mansion and extract her pounds of flesh and justice. Guilly is your cliched, amoral, corrupt, bully, ‘fat cat’ billionaire. Name any non-bailable capital crime, and he’s committed it. His wife (Mylene Dizon) and daughter Nicole (Nadine Lustre) are both victims of Stockholm syndrome, aware of his gross imperfections but keeping a blind eye and sticking close to him because they love his money too much.

While there are numerous flashbacks, in the present, the movie takes place during one night, Guilly’s birthday party. His goons and hired help are ever-present, and Aga Muhlach wastes no time in turning Guilly into a reprehensible, abusive, bullying oligarch. He knows what he’s doing, ready to cover it up, bribe whoever needs to be greased, and murder whoever needs to be silenced forever. If some of them think this a daring new move on the part of Aga to go against type and his leading man reputation, I’d like to point out his turn as a lean and mean serial killer in Sa Aking Mga Kamay (1996). Here, he conjures up a richer, confident, and abusive business tycoon, ready at the drop of a pin to engage in criminality. 

And what can we say about Vilma Santos? Who else can make the audience erupt into cheering and applause as she repeatedly stabs to death one of the goons of Guilly Vega? Or when she runs over a person three times? 

Pao Orendain handles the cinematography, and shafts of light and focus offset a dark, murky atmosphere. It all helps create a claustrophobic sense of imminent doom - whether this is the doom of Lily and her boyfriend at the hands of Guilly and his henchmen or the doom that will descend on Guilly as Lilia plays the avenging angel.

If I have to level some criticism on the film, I’d point out the very one-dimensional portrayal of the very rich. They all smoke, they all take drugs, and they all have a callous disregard for others. No one on that side has any arc. And we don’t see the steps by which Lilia decided to take justice into her own hands or how she got invited to the birthday bash and amassed the cash needed to be noticed. 

A Warner Brothers, Mentorque, and Project 8 co-production, the film will have premieres abroad, and I can only guess it will eventually surface on Max, the Warner streaming platform. If you like your justice-meted-out vigilante style, completely disregarding the rule of law or asking law enforcers to do their job, this is the perfect MMFF film to watch. I enjoyed watching Aga have fun going overboard with his Guilly and appreciated how Vilma was doing something entirely different for her at this stage in her illustrious career.