Wag Kang Lilingon (English: Don't Turn Away; more specifically Don't Look Back) is a 2006 Filipino Supernatural horror film produced by Star Cinema and Viva Films starring Anne Curtis and Kristine Hermosa.
The story is divided into three segments: Uyayi (Lullaby), Salamin (Mirror), and the Epilogue
Uyayi provides the following tropes:
- Chemistry Can Do Anything: Melissa burns her boyfriend's face using hospital sterilization chemical solutions.
- Deadly Doctor: Dr. Carl is implicated to be one. However, it is revealed that Melissa is actually the deadly nurse.
- Jump Scare: Oh, several of these.
- Playing with Syringes
- Red Herring: Dr Carl. See Deadly Doctor above.
- Shout-Out: The setting of the film is an expy to Masayuki Ochiai's Infection (2004) and Silent Hill.
Salamin provides the following tropes:
- Absurdly Long Stairway: Although the stairs was short, it became such as the Grandmother kept on going back the same landing on the top floor every time she supposedly reached the ground floor. This was a trick done by one of the malevolent spirits and it doubles as a Endless Corridor.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The house isn't just haunted by one spirit but is haunted by many, all whom where victims of Nestor the caretaker.
- Ethereal White Dress: A typical White Lady of Filipino mythology appears as one of the ghosts. It also resembles Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl in East Asian horror films.
- Haunted House: The main setting of this segment.
- I See Dead People: All the characters can see them.
- I See Them, Too:When Nestor is chasing the family around the house with the intent to kill them, he can clearly see the ghosts of his previous victims in the dark corners of the house. He just does not react nor feel afraid to seeing them. However, a White Lady appears when Nestor dies due to the caretaker was bashed into the mirror in the basement, leading to the death of the house's caretaker.
- Jump Scare: Several of these frequently appear as this is the haunted house segment.
- Cat Scares are abundant as well.
- Magnetic Medium: Trixie, the psychic friend of Angel.
- Monochrome Apparition: Some of the ghosts have this appearance.
- Poltergeist: The ghosts make their presence felt by moving several things in the house.
- Serial Killer: Nestor. Who would have expected the friendly caretaker murdered the previous occupants of the house.
- Monster Mash: Although no other monsters were involved, this deserves special mention due to the following ghosts spotted in each segment of a film:
- A White Lady. Physically manifested when one of the characters was looking at the mirror. This ghost first appeared when Angel noticed that a cat falls on a table and heard the cat's meow sound. The camera then moves to the right to see that it stirs to Angel and her face was shown when the jump scare sound plays. It again shows up when Angel prepares herself for the blessing of their house, looked at the mirrors stored in the basement while she returns to the house in order to find a way to stop the spirits and before the chase with the house's caretaker, Nestor, and finally appeared after the chase scene with Nestor to witness the death of the said caretaker. This is both the first and last ghost to appear, as well as the only female ghost that appear in the segment.
- A burned ghost with brownish-reddish skin, multiple boils, and messy hair. This spirit was the most malevolent of all because he shook the bed Nina was in and made the bed levitate in the air, grabbed her arm from below her bed, made an electric fan spew blood, and terrify the family. His trick was defeated when the mother threw a rosary in to it. He appeared again to witness the death of Red.
- A male ghost in formal attire. He shows up when Nina notices that a human figure appeared on a hallway which stops the curtain from moving. A bust of soldier move on its own and after Nina returns it to its original position, the ghost is seen along the stairs but thankfully she does not see him.
- A male ghost in white t-shirt and denim shorts. Another malevolent entity. He attempts to murder Nina's grandmother using broken pieces of glass while he confuses the said grandmother in a staircase that seemed to never end. He also locks the family in the house. His trick was defeated when one of the characters destroys the glass he intended to murder the grandmother.
- A ghost behind the house's iron fence. Appeared after Nestor stabs Angel which caused the body of Rosing to drop on the floor.
- A male ghost in blue shirt. Appeared before the staircase of a house while Angel tries to escape from Nestor, which blocks her way out.
- A male ghost wearing a white dress. He shows up while Nestor chases Angel.
- A male ghost in black shirt and denim shorts. He appears to look at a dead body of Trixie.
- A male burned ghost wearing a white dress. Appeared while Nestor chases Nina in the basement and after the chase scene with the said caretaker.
- Spooky Séance: Trixie tells the family that the spirits from the mirror were souls of the previous tenants of the house. They weren't just one, but many of them.
- The Reveal: We are led to think the ghosts are hunting the family just For the Evulz, but it is later revealed that Nestor is the main antagonist or villain of this segment, having murdered all of the occupants of that house.
- Unfinished Business: Apparently, the ghosts just wanted justice since they were all murdered by Nestor the caretaker.
- Unholy Ground: Naturally, since multiple of the previous occupants were murdered before Nina's family moved it.
- Would Hurt a Child: The burnt-faced ghost and the ghost clad in a white t-shirt and denim shorts.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Nestor killed Trixie by bludgeoning her into the table and objects placed on it which caused them to fall. Similarly, Angel killed the Nestor by bludgeoning him into the mirror in the basement (the same mirror that Angel and Nina did a candle-lighting ritual, and Trixie and Angel dumped in the river earlier in the segment), killing the house's caretaker thus ending the chase.
- Mirror Monster: The mirror in a haunted house serves as a portal of spirits of the previous tenants of the house. Also, if a character looks at the mirror, a White Lady (one of the ghosts in the segment) appears.
The Epilogue provides the following tropes:
- Call-Back: This is where the story connects.
- 3 AM. In Uyayi, the killings and the strange happenings occurred at 3 in the morning. The time relates to the deaths of Angel, Rosing and Trixie, in Salamin, which occurred around 3 AM. Melissa's repressed memories caused her to kill people and the ghosts haunting the hospital were actually manifestations of her own guilt.
- The humming tune. In the basement where Melissa apparently kills James, she hums a tune reminiscent of the "Mockingbird" lullaby. This is explained in Salamin, when Nestor was pursuing Nina/Melissa towards the basement, he was humming the same tune.
- Man Trouble. It seems that the women in Nina/Melissa's family lacks the ability to inspire loyalty from their men. Rosing, her mom, was abandoned by their father in favor of his mistress. Angel's troubled relationship with her boyfriend stems from his promiscuousness. The strain between Nina/Melissa and James' relationship took root when Nina/Melissa learned of James' other failed relationship and maybe spurred on by her own insecurities that he may be (if not already) unfaithful, just as her father was with her mother and her sister's boyfriend was with Angel.
- Ghost Reunion Ending: Subverted. It appears that Melissa is talking with the spirit of her dead mother and sister but is later confirmed to be just figments of her imagination as she cannot get over the deaths of her family.
- Indian Burial Ground/Unholy Ground: Not in the strict aspect, but the Angel of Mercy hospital was built on the same haunted house where Melissa spent her childhood at.
- Jump Scare: We all thought James was dead until he suddenly shouts and grabs Melissa by the neck before the film ends.
- The Reveal: Nina from the second segment is revealed to be Melissa all along. She changed her name to Melissa as a symbol of moving on from her tragic past. Melissa then went to the United States to study as a nurse and returned to the Philippines and went to work at the Angel of Mercy hospital, which was erected on the haunted house she lived as a child. Although it is ambiguous if the ghosts of her childhood are the same, it is later revealed to be manifestations subconscious thoughts and feelings. The hummingbird, 3 am, and problem with men, are all call backs of the past. Her insanity has gone to the point where she pretends that her long dead sister and mother are conversing with her at the film's final ending. Lastly, the audience are thought to believe that James was killed when Melissa burned his face, in fact he just was unconscious where he grabs Melissa by the neck in a Jump Scare fashion.
