There is a raw, almost unfiltered texture to both the narrative and the imagery of writer and director Sheron Dayoc’s Sinag Maynila feature ‘The Gospel of the Beast’ (with additional writing by Jericho Aguado). The film pulls no punches about a teenager who finds himself with very little options after a fit of rage turns him into an accidental murderer. Mateo works at a butchery, helping slaughter pigs for selling. The opening scene has our lead, played by the arresting Jansen Magpusao of ‘John Denver Trending,’ preparing the slaughtered pigs and washing off the blood from the slaughterhouse floor. It’s a foreshadowing of the kind of violence that will unfold in the film.
He works part-time in the slaughterhouse to help out his aunt who has taken him and his younger siblings in as his father goes missing. In school, he is bullied but Mateo fights back; not a victim and there’s a rage inside of him that you can see is fighting to get free. When one bully goes too far, Mateo retaliates in the heat of rage and kills his schoolmate. Without witnesses, he is free to make an escape, and his only recourse is to go with his uncle, Berto (Ronnie Lazaro). Berto brings Mateo along to an abandoned villa with a gang of less than savory individuals.Here, Mateo discovers that his uncle robs, tortures, and kills people. Unwittingly, Mateo has joined a gang, working for a man everyone calls “boss” who appears very briefly, it so quick that the camera barely manages to capture his face, and we know nothing about him except that he’s dressed far better than Berto and his crew. Is it political? Is it a crime boss? Mateo doesn’t know so the audience doesn’t know because the film is so focused on Mateo’s interior world.
What’s incredible about ‘The Gospel of the Beast’ is Dayoc’s sheer focus on making this Mateo’s story. Possibly 70% of the film are tight close-up shots of Magpusao’s beautiful face that hides nothing: Mateo’s fear, anxiety, guilt, curiosity, and rage are all there for us to observe and empathize with. There’s so much Mateo doesn’t know and, oftentimes, doesn’t want to know so these concepts are left at the periphery hinting at a larger, darker world. What we do witness is Mateo’s complex coming-of-age story as he desperately tries to hold on to his youth and humanity through adopting a dog or bonding with another gang member his age, Gudo, portrayed with such warmth and realism by John Renz Javier. At the same time, we are also witnessing Mateo’s growth into a man, the inner rage in him finding a space amongst the tough gang members in Berto’s group, that he is quicker now to lash out and realise the beast inside of him even if his young teenage body isn’t yet strong enough to match his fire, especially against Berto’s team who are older and much more used to violence.
The film is a character study of the ways by which the underprivileged youth have very little options available to them when things go wrong and without real parental supervision or community support. How easily he is seduced by his uncle Berto’s manipulations, wonderfully portrayed by Ronnie Lazaro, who can be in equal parts loving and nurturing and then cold and brutal. It’s the dynamic of Lazaro and Magpusao that really gives the movie it’s emotional weight.
‘The Gospel of the Beast’ is an arresting film, one that seeks to disturb you while playing out this violent world in a very human setting. The film is rife with symbolism of being captive, or held in prison by the way it organically weaves in aquariums or brings out the image of Mateo’s adopted dog’s leash. The animals here are bound to their owners. Mateo may run free in the forested villa where he resides, but he does not have the liberty to set his own path.
This is a dark tale that is violent and brutal and unforgiving, but it is a necessary piece that needs to be seen.
My Rating:
The Gospel of the Beast, a finalist in the #SinagMaynila2024 Feature Film Category, was screened in select cinemas from September 4-10, 2024.
