Lila concerns Jess (Janine Gutierrez), who arrives as a new boarder at an old house owned by the elderly Violeta (Sherry Lara). We soon learn that Jess has spent the last ten months living in a convent, having run away from her family following a traumatic event to be revealed later. The only family she's still in contact with is her cousin Kevin (Enchong Dee), who's helping her out with expenses while she looks for a job. Jess finds an old journal in her room, and she becomes really interested in the story of Linda, who had the room before her. But as she continues to read, she learns that there is something not quite right about the house.
She learns this slowly, because apparently, Jess is the slowest reader in the world. The diary, as shown in the film, is a very slim volume, and the writing on every page isn't very dense. But it takes Jess days to get through the book. Even when she gets to an interesting part where Linda starts to narrate the weirdness in the house, she inexplicably stops. Even when she realizes that there is indeed something strange going on, she doesn't skip ahead in the journal to maybe get some clues that could help her out.
A diary is generally a poor plot device for revealing secrets. It often feels too convenient, with unseen characters revealing secrets in terribly contrived ways. And it can be difficult to make the written entries sound natural. This film wrestles with those challenges, and then goes on to make it worse with the clunky means by which it spreads the information out. It ends up making the protagonist seem really dumb. Jess should be smart enough to read ahead. When the film finally reveals what is at the end of the journal, it feels totally ridiculous. The film hinges its bug reveal on completely unnatural behavior from its lead character.
Even if one puts that very central problem aside, the rest of the film still isn't very good. It feels like the details just weren't thought through. It is revealed, for example, that alcohol has something to do with the big trauma at the heart of Jess' decision to leave her home. In spite of all the talk of how she is unable to forgive herself for that event, she seems to be okay with drinking. Her cousin, who knows about the trauma and seems to genuinely care about Jess, brings her a bag full of beer at one point. And then there's the big twist, which isn't really much of a twist at all.
As a horror movie, the only thing the movie offers is a decent amount of gore. But there isn't much that's scary in this while story. The movie is holding off the twist for so long that it spends most of its runtime inside utterly benign sequences. The house itself is kind of creepy, but the film doesn't do much to enhance that effect. Performances are stilted at best, the actors struggling with awkward dialogue. Janine Gutierrez mostly looks confused, the young actress unable to sell her character's lack of common sense.
Lila is a bad horror movie, and there are enough of those around. The mainstream is perfectly capable of putting together film after film of nonsensical plots and empty scares. These festivals are supposed to provide us with alternatives, with the kinds of films that we don't usually get to see. This movie doesn't even rise to the level of most local horror films. It is a little slower, a little less scary, and a lot dumber.
My Rating:
