| Maria Leonora Teresa | |
| Director: | Wenn V. Deramas |
| Screenplay: | Keiko A. Aquino |
| Story: | Wenn V. Deramas |
| Music: | Carmina Cuya |
| Cinematography: | Charlie Peralta |
| Editing: | Marya Ignacio |
| Studio: | ABS-CBN Film Productions |
| Distributor: | Star Cinema |
| Runtime: | 102 minutes |
| Country: | Philippines |
| Gross: | [1] |
Maria Leonora Teresa is a 2014 Filipino supernatural horror film directed by Wenn V. Deramas, starring Iza Calzado, Zanjoe Marudo and Jodi Sta. Maria. The film was named after the Guy and Pip's doll of the same name.[2] [3]
The film opens with the spiritual blessing of the new building of Little Magnolia School. The mayor, one of the guests, warns the school's owner, Stanley Pardo, of the school's past incident where a student died. Stanley's wife Faith, is in the school's restroom when a ghost of a boy appears.
The next day, three parents, Faith, teacher Julio, and Stella mourn the deaths of their respective daughters: Maria, Leonora, and Teresa after an accident during the school's field trip. To help them cope with their loss, a psychiatrist named Manolo Apacible offers life-sized talking dolls to look after. At first, Faith and Stella refuse the dolls because they bear a physical resemblance to their daughters. The similar speech patterns and voices disturb them and cause them further grief. Julio, on the other hand, accepts the offer.
Julio starts to see the effect of his doll on him. He shares his fast recovery with Stella and Faith. Faith takes Julio's advice and takes the "Maria" doll. Stella still refuses to take her doll but eventually accepts it when her cheating husband Don, takes the doll after Manolo offers it to him.
The three parents start to recover with the dolls but hauntings start to happen around them. The hauntings start with one of Faith's housemaids, Don and Stella's housemaid, Don himself, and one of Julio's students. The school principal reprimands Julio for bringing his doll to class, scaring students, and concerning their parents. Faith reveals to Stanley that she is pregnant. Stanley suggests disposing of Faith's doll. The dolls then start to kill people, starting when Leonora kills the school principal, and Maria plants pencils to the stairs and lures Faith which could cause her to fall and miscarry. Maria's plan fails when one of the housemaids intercepts Faith and removes the pencils. Teresa starts a killing frenzy with Don and her mistress. However, she fails to kill his mistress' son when authorities hear them screaming and enter the crime scene. Don is left in critical condition and eventually dies. Maria targets the housemaid who foiled her plan and starts stabbing her, but not before she manages to take pictures before losing consciousness. Teresa kills her grandmother by impaling a sword from a St. Michael statue on her forehead.
Faith and Stella blame Julio for offering the dolls and past incidents. Julio denies the dolls' involvement. Faith opens up about the past school incident where the three of them are involved; Julio storms off claiming he was not involved.
Faith's other housemaid also notices the hauntings and refers Faith to her cousin, Augusto, who is a witch doctor. Augusto diagnoses that the dolls are controlled by a person with knowledge of powerful witchcraft. Stella and her brother start packing their things and prepare to leave but Teresa tries to kill Stella. Faith asks Stella to come and meet her in Augusto's place. Augusto conducts a séance and finds out the name of the ghost that haunted Faith at the beginning of the film. The ghost is revealed to be Eldon Jacinto, the student who died during the past incident in the school.
It is revealed that Eldon is the son of Manolo and Manolo is the one controlling the dolls. Leonora lures Julio to Manolo's place and knocks him out. The three dolls meet and kill Stanley. Augusto suggests to battle Manolo and end his spell. When they arrive, they are shocked to see Julio tied. They are knocked out by the dolls. When they wake up, Manolo shares his plan to deliver vengeance for the death of his son.
Manolo plots his revenge against the three parents who were involved in the death of Eldon and deprived him of justice. Eldon had an ability to see the future and one of his visions was the school incident. He shared his vision with his classmates causing panic. Julio punished Eldon for spreading the rumor by locking him in a classroom next to a science laboratory. The science laboratory had a gas leak and a janitor recklessly lit a cigarette causing an explosion. Before the explosion, Eldon warned Teresa to stay away from the classroom. Teresa told this to Stella but dismissed it since Stella made a lot of favors to the school because of Teresa's failing marks. Stanley and Faith covered up the incident by bribing police investigators and silencing Eldon's guardian. Manolo was abroad when his son died. Manolo tries to finish his ritual to turn the parents into dolls but Julio manages to untie himself and disrupt the ritual and untie the others. Manolo recovers and orders the dolls to attack them. The three parents fight their dolls and Augusto battles Manolo. Faith and Stella successfully destroy their dolls but Julio lets Leonora escape. Manolo overpowers Augusto and impales Julio with a spear. Faith and Stella take Eldon's body and give him a proper burial and blessing. Manolo appears before the two and attempts to kill them but Julio appears and delivers a fatal blow to Manolo before dying. The film ends when Stella and Faith visit Julio's grave. Faith successfully gives birth and Stella adopts Don's illegitimate son.
In the mid-credits scene, another parent is grieving the death of her child from the field trip accident. She is approached by Julio the same way as Manolo who presents her with a box containing the Leonora doll.
Reviews for the film were mixed to positive, with some critics praising the first act of the film for its atmosphere, while criticizing the final act to be too funny to be scary. Jodi Sta. Maria, Iza Calzado and Zanjoe Marudo were also praised for their performance.[4] [5]