Career-boosting portrayals from Diego and AJ in noirish rape-slay whodunit

Diego Loyzaga (left) and AJ Raval in “Death of a Girlfriend”

Diego Loyzaga is putting his inner demons and boy-next-door appeal to good use in Yam Laranas’ grisly whodunit “Death of a Girlfriend”—a fresh and provocative spin on Pinoy neo-noir that cleverly channels the twisted convolutions of Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects.”

But Diego’s thespic triumph in the Vivamax thriller wouldn’t have been as convincing without the complementary debut portrayal of AJ Raval, who daringly inhabits the titular “dead girlfriend” as if reliving her character Christine’s nightmare and the cautionary circumstances that led to her death were second skin to her.

More than that, while she may be rough around the edges, there’s certainly more to AJ than her willingness to dabble in the sexy bandwagon. But that’s getting ahead of ourself.

The film revolves around Christine’s death as seen from three incongruous points of view: There’s Alonzo (Diego), the transferee student who’s drawn to Christine’s thinly concealed rebellious nature as much as her disarming candor.

But despite her weed-sniffing, devil-may-care attitude and homespun, grassroots relatability, Christine isn’t the easy lay she initially seems to be.

The girl doesn’t even let her guard down easily when the forest ranger (Arnold Reyes), the crime’s second suspect, comes around wondering about Alonzo’s lingering presence in her daily hikes deep into the woods or offering to give the pretty teenage student a ride home from school in his pickup truck.

Loyzaga

Seeing all these curious interactions from a distance is the farmer (Raul Morit), the third suspect who ekes out a living using forest resources that the ranger is tasked to protect and preserve. But is he as sinister as he looks?

Mystifying mood

Laranas drops as many indicative clues as red herrings in this moody and more-than-serviceable thriller. But it benefits from the mystifying mood and menacing atmosphere he builds for a story framed by its uniquely immersive setting.

We enjoyed Laranas’ creepy 2004 horror flick “Sigaw,” and couldn’t get enough of the thrills and chills he astutely conjured up for 2011’s “The Road.” Unfortunately, it’s also worth noting that he hasn’t really delivered much thereafter.

Raval

For the most part, we’ve been largely underwhelmed by the inane abstractions in his recent forays into the suspense-thriller/horror genre—from the head-scratching “Aurora” (2018) to the soporific “Nightshift” (2020)—that, regardless of their potent visual allure, were too gimmicky for their own good. A competently spun tale doesn’t require much of that.

So it’s a treat for us to see the director in his element in a film that, while not entirely original, manages to transcend the contrivances of oft-repeated formula. In fact, Laranas even makes some of his cast members’ spine-tinglingly over-the-top performances play out well in the larger scheme of things. And we certainly hope it’s no fluke. INQ