The new film directed by Jules Katanyag, titled The Oskars Fantasy, is one of the most absurd movies I’ve seen recently. Starring Filipino actors Paolo Contis and Joross Gamboa, the film revolves around a movie crew that finds itself getting eaten alive by monsters from the netherworld. The plotline might sound like this is a horror film, but it’s an out-and-out absurd comedy. Two men team up together and try to make a film, hoping that it will win them an Academy Award. On the way, they encounter actual monsters that were supposed to have been generated by visual effects. Paolo Contis plays producer Bobby B, who quits his job working for a tycoon and dealing with his unbearable son. He finds an ally in Direk DMZ who brings a once-in-a-lifetime script to him. Fantasies take over, and they visit DMZ’s grandma’s village to start shooting, unaware that they will have to deal with real monsters to finish the shooting.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
After Bobby B met Direk DMZ, the dream of winning an Oscar came true. Direk had written his screenplay after years of struggle, and it was based on the stories told to him by his grandmother. Bobby was moved by the script, but he didn’t have any money to greenlight the project. So he got his assistant, Odessa, on board and asked her to hire the cheapest crew possible. Once the crew assembled, the shooting began. Bobby had no money to hire a special effects team. Without it, the movie could never be made. Yet he promised the crew that he would get the monsters when required on set. Terror and humor were indistinguishable from each other when people started to disappear from the set one by one.
Why Did Bobby Go With Direk To His Grandma’s Village?
Bobby had quit his job. In his head, he was the hottest producer in the entire Filipino movie industry, but the reality was that all his money came from a business tycoon. Now, he was in debt, and his film had to be scrapped. The only thing he wanted was to win an Oscar, but that dream seemed distant. When Direk came to him, he started to see that dream again. But he had no budget to shoot the film. He probably didn’t want to become a business tycoon, as that would have been against his principles. And he might have been forced to work for his son again, who was an entitled brat and never listened to Bobby. So, the only way the cost of the movie could be minimized was if the film was shot on location. The story required a location that had the vibe of a fantasy land, and Direk’s grandma’s village seemed to be the perfect location, which is why Bobby agreed to go there.
How Did Bobby Get The Monsters On Set?
As Bobby had no budget for a visual effects crew, he was looking to create monsters on set that would look realistic. After all, he didn’t just want to satisfy Odessa and Direk, who was the director, but also fulfill his own dream of winning an Oscar. That would have been possible only if his film looked incredibly well made. Distressed, he found the answer to this problem through Direk’s grandma. She overheard the conversation regarding the monsters between Bobby and Direk and told Bobby about the ‘curse of the jewel.’ The mysterious jewel had kept the monsters in check and kept them from coming into the human world. A man named Pedro was the jewel’s heir, and his son, Pedro Jr., was the caretaker of the monsters’ realm. Direk’s Grandma told Bobby that there were a few monsters that had escaped the curse of the jewel, and through Pedro Junior, he could contact them and ask them to visit their set.
How Did Bobby And Direk Survive?
Odessa did what Bobby had told him to do. She got the best crew possible within the given budget. The visual effects team was left to Bobby. The crew arrived, and the filming began. Before all this, Bobby met Pedro Junior. There, he learned about the ways he could summon the monsters to come to his set. That is the reason he had to make a pact that ultimately got misunderstood. When Bobby left Pedro Junior, the monsters had eaten him. That’s because he had given the bloody handkerchief to Bobby. The handkerchief hid the jewel that controlled the monsters. These monsters that Bobby saw were not maneaters, but two out of the three had great bloodlust right after the handkerchief went to Bobby. Pedro was no longer protected, which is why the monsters pounced on him.
Bobby had no idea about this. He had made a deal with the monsters that he would provide them ample ‘food.’ The food the monsters understood was human flesh. Bobby left food packets near their area, but they weren’t satisfied. This is why the monsters started attacking the crew members. Initially, it was taken to be a case of crew members fleeing from the movie set due to payment issues, but Odessa knew something wasn’t right. Bobby was praised, as after eating the crew members, the monsters were glad to honor the deal, and they appeared in Direk’s shots. They looked unbelievably realistic, and nobody seemed to care too much about the disappearing crew. Bobby came to know about the monsters’ actual wants when they asked him for more bodies. Direk was so into his directorial mode that he could only focus on his camera and make the movie. The found-footage documentary style that was planned in the beginning became an actual reality. Everybody ran amok to save themselves from the monsters, while Direk continued filming. Direk has not been in the right frame of mind since the beginning of the film. He seemed delusional, and it became quite apparent while he filmed people dying.
Bobby didn’t know that he had the jewel with him. He was the only one who could control the monsters. The jewel granted a wish to the heir, and if he wasn’t greedy, he would ask for the monsters to go back to their world. The filming had woken up more fierce monsters from their slumber. They, too, were going to join the two newly made maneaters. Bobby and Direk were only helped by one monster who wanted Pedro’s vision to come true. She wanted humans and monsters to live peacefully together. She tried to save them, but ultimately, it was Direk who applied a trick that his grandma had taught him and brought out the jewel from the handkerchief. But everything failed as Bobby asked for the film to win an Oscar instead of asking for the monsters to go away.
The monsters couldn’t eat Bobby, as he had the jewel, and the charm ended only when the monsters saw the film. They saw the film Direk and Bobby had made and were quite moved. The monsters had made an appearance in thirteen scenes, and according to the deal, they wanted to eat 13 people. They had eaten 12 crewmembers already, so Bobby and Direk had to decide between themselves who was willing to sacrifice himself so that the other could save the film. Luckily, the business tycoon showed up looking for his son, who had died on the set. The 13th fellow, the final meal for the monsters, had arrived, and they let Bobby and Direk go. The duo ended up winning the Oscar, which was inevitable as Bobby had already wished for the jewel to make his dream of winning an Oscar come true.
