Fresh scare tactics from ‘The Debutantes’

Sue Ramirez

Unlike most horror flicks that are poorly lit and often let the audience use its own imagination, filmmaker Prime Cruz utilized bright hues—blue, red, pink, green and yellow—in his latest movie offering, “The Debutantes.”

Describing his film as “color horror,” Cruz explained: “We often see horror films that are dark. Black is their usual color. We made this film colorful, with cinematography that is beautiful.”

Cruz said he made sure that “The Debutantes” employed fresh scare tactics.

“We’ve adapted some of what we saw in foreign films and ‘Filipinized’ them to reflect our sensibility,” Cruz explained.

Cruz isn’t just a director of horror flicks. He also made the rom-com, “Can We Still Be Friends?” this year.

“The Debutantes,” which will be shown in cinemas nationwide starting Oct. 4, revolves around Kate (Sue Ramirez), whose classmates consider her “weird” and an introvert.

Kate tries to win the friendship of fellow student Lara (Miles Ocampo), as well as her friends Jenny (Jane de Leon), Candice (Michelle Vito) and Shayne (Chanel Morales), but fails.

“The internal struggle is in Sue’s character. Obviously, the horror experiences will start from her,” explained Cruz. “But the girls will each have their own highlights.”

As their director, Cruz said he made sure the girls had equal exposure. “I based everything on the script. In the film, you will see Jane lying down on something that she isn’t supposed to. Michelle had to feel physical pain for a particular scene—she agreed to do it for real. We just told her that if she felt she could no longer handle it, she should ‘tap out’ (a move that a mixed martial artist does to signify submission to his opponent),” Cruz recalled.

Chanel had to take up swimming lessons for the film, “because her character is a competitive swimmer,” Cruz added. “Meanwhile, it’s true that Sue had to cry for seven straight hours for most of her scenes. It really required a lot of energy and, of course, commitment.”

The director added: “This film will definitely appeal to millennials. It has a lot of new elements that they will find exciting.”