Reed Alexander's Horror Review of 'Nocebo' (2022)

Man, this movie could shake you. It is a powerful folk tale about one person's punishment. First off, let's just talk about how fucking fascinating the Filipino folk traditions in this movie are. Now, I have NO idea how accurate they are, but my wife did confirm some one the ones she recognized. All the same, other culture's take on horror is just so facinating. I just wanna know what scares people and really dissect it.

Though really, it's more about what scares this one particular white lady. At the beginning of the movie she receives a phone call about "an incident where people die" (that they're obnoxiously obscure about), then promptly has a nervous breakdown. This includes the vision of a tick-riddled dog that basically sheds a ton of ticks onto her. Even though this is presented as a hallucination (which we all know it's not because it's a horror movie), one does end up being real and digs in at the nape of her neck.

She then gets 'sick.' But what is causing her illness? Was it the nervous breakdown that she had from whatever the bad news was? Did the tick give her Limes Disease? Is it just the stress of her job causing her to lose her mind?

That's when we're introduced to Diana. A Filipino mangkukulam who 'applies' as a nanny to said white laddy Christine, and starts helping her deal with her sickness. First of all, the way Diana just waltzes right into Christine's life speaks volumes about her ability as a shyster, at least. If it really is witchcraft, it's some scary shit. Second, Diana really seems to help Christine get better with her folk remedies.

The acting is fantastic between Diana and Christine. There's some really serious tension between the two of them. Diana genuinely seems to want to help. Actually, even the child actor is pretty good. There's also the tension between Christine and her husband which is pretty good. He's kinda an asshole and that's completely relevant to the story at hand.

The plot is brilliant, the folk magic is fascinating, the tension is superb, and the ending will straight fuck you up. It's so good. I can't recommend this movie any more, just watch it. I think it will be good for general adult audiences.

SPOILERS!!!

I think at first Diana really wanted to heal Christine. It's kinda hard to tell because she almost certainly was manipulating Christine, but then, so was her shitty husband. However, for the most part, what she was offering Christine was making her better and even improving her relationship with her daughter. You almost get the sense that it wasn't a revenge plot at first, but that Diana was trying to heal Christine of what was making her a bad person. You see, Christine was the owner of the sweatshop that Diana used to work at which burned down with Dian's daughter inside. It's possible at first that Diana thought if she could fix Christine, then he daughter wouldn't have died for no reason. Dian knows Christine's condition stems from her guilt over the people that died in the fire. It almost seems like Diana pitied her for her guilt and wanted to give her a chance for redemption. But, because of Christina's asshole husband, she eventually spurns Diana's help.

That pretty much seems to be the final straw. Diana goes from a redemption quest to brutal revenge. If Christine won't confront her guilt for what she did, Diana has zero fucking problem having it consume her. And it does, in glorious fashion. I won't ruin the rest, because I genuinely want you to watch this movie.

But yeah, this movie was fantastic.