‘Nocebo’ is a thriller that follows Christine, a fashion designer who suffers from an unexplainable illness, experiencing debilitating seizures and memory loss. Christine is helped by Diana, a caretaker who provides traditional folk remedies to alleviate Christine's ailments.
One morning at a fashion show, Christine experiences a vision, seeing a tick infested dog about to attack her. The dog disappears, but Christine is left traumatised. Moths later, as she heads for an interview to recommence her design work and develop a new line of children’s clothing, she has a seizure, indicating that she my not be ready to return to work.
The same day Diana arrives, with Christine having no recollection of hiring a housekeeper. Diana settles in and helps around the house. Christine’s husband Felix and daughter Roberta (‘Bobs’) are weary of the maid, as she had arrived and settled in with little notice.
Over time Christine and Diana grow closer as Diana offers to help Christine overcome her illness with traditional Filipino folk remedies, urging her to trust her. Diana reveals to Christine that she possesses healing powers, as one day as a child she was visited by an umu who had died in her house of old age. As the old umu expired, a small bird crawled out of her mouth and into Diana’s, making her the next umu.
Christine later experiences intense nightmares, yet ultimately feels better as Diana’s remedies seem to work. Over time, Diana manages to befriend Bobs, who later experiences a dream where she sees Diana flying.
Suspicious, Felix snoops around in Diana’s room and finds all of Christine’s medicine. Enraged, Christine tells Diana to leave. After having talked with Diana, Bobs tells Christine that Felix is the one who withheld her medicine, forcing him to relocate to the spare bedroom, only for him to fall down the stairs and to be taken away to the hospital.
Diana returns, much to Christine’s contentment. The two resume Christine’s therapy, only for Diana to induce a trance revealing through a vision that she had been an employee in one of her clothing sweatshops. Because of a locked door policy that Christine had introduced, a fire that had started in the factory killed most of its employees and Diana’s daughter. After revealing her past, Diana leaves Christine to face judgement within the fiery flashback.
On her way out, Bobs sees Diana on the roof of the house, with Diana deciding to jump to hear death. A small bird crawls out of Diana’s mouth and into Bobs’, making her the next umu.
Even though it is visually well composed and aesthetically pleasing, ‘Nocebo’ presents a very familiar narrative, substituting Christine’s repressed guilt over the factory fire with a mysterious illness. Diana’s involvement in perpetuating the violent visions in trying to force Christine to face up to her sins is obvious from the moment she appears on Christine’s doorstep.
The film fails to maintain an air of mystery about it, even failing to throw a red herring or two at the audience to try and dispel any notion of Diana’s involvement with Christine’s ailment. Rather, the movie unfolds without much intrigue, and it’s slow pace up to the finale is unsuccessful in maintaining, or even creating, suspense.
The stand out in the film is Eva Green, portraying Christine, who successfully delivers the image of fear and anxiety, evoking a sense of dread for the character’s well-being. Green renders a poignant and stirring performance, but it seems to fizzle as the slow pace of the film overshadows the performance.
Loosely based on the 2015 Kentex slipper factory fire in the Philippines, ‘Nocebo’ illustrates and evokes a sort of spiritual retribution for those who suffered in the fire. Causing for Christine to go through the same suffering the trapped workers experienced, the film delivers on exacting revenge to those at the top and responsible for the agony of the workers.
‘Nocebo’ has an intriguing yet immediately decipherable underlying message, leaving the viewer with little to no twist and turns to be taken aback by. Even though the film doesn’t demean itself to cheap jump-scares, the feature is almost entirely devoid of any shocking or thrilling moments, ultimately providing for a bland and unexciting viewing experience.
Score: 2/4
Comments