KOMCine

𝗦𝗘𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗖, 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗜𝗢𝗥𝗦!—Four years ago, you entered the halls of Adamson with dreams and stories waiting to be told. Now, you are ready to make your mark out in the real world.🫆

As you prepare to turn the tassel next week, please know how incredibly proud our department is, not just of what you have achieved, but of the people you have become.

Wherever your next chapter leads, continue to carry the values of responsible communication, meaningful storytelling, and service to others.

The world is now your audience. Congratulations, Batch 2025-2026! 🎉




(📸 Jerica Masculino)

"To the great people we could have been, to the great people we are today, and to the great people we will be." - That Thing Called Tadhana 💘

We bid farewell to our outgoing seniors who have made a mark and continuously made KOMcine a better and brighter film organization.

This is not the end, we all wish you the best on your endeavors as you say goodbye to your collegiate journey. May we see you soon in the industry. Padayon! 🎬

Happy Birthday to our Adviser, Sir Jex Inocalla 🥳

We are very thankful for you patience and constant guidance. Your KomCine family are incredibly grateful to have you as an adviser who genuinely supports our growth and continuously inspire us to do our best. 💞

Thank you for everything, Sir! We hope you have a memorable and amazing birthday. 🎥

Happy Birthday to our Finance Head, Bia! 🥳

We are thankful for your contributions and proud to have you as part of Komcine. Thank you for sharing your talent, creativity, and energy with us. We look forward to creating more memories and achievements together. 💝

May your day be filled with joy, and all the best things in life come your way. 🎬

Happy Birthday to our hardworking marketing staff, Patricia! 🥳

Your dedication and commitment are what make Komcine alive and thriving. From handling marketing duties to playing roles in our short films, we are truly blessed to have you in this team. 💞

Enjoy your day, Patricia! We’re wishing you all the best in this cinematic world. 🎞️

Obsession (2026)
Directed by: Curry Barker

As The Monkey’s Paw wrote: “Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it.” With Curry Barker’s latest horror film, Obsession, wishing for love of another with a snap of a branch amplifies the gravity of its consequences to horrifying extent. Obsession is an unsettling tale that twists predictable situations and pulls its pacing to elevate nail-biting tension. It’s a grotesque and raw look into a toxic and abusive relationship, where man demands at the cost of a woman’s autonomy. It’s not your typical “girl gone cuckoo after possession” story.

Obsession is simple and familiar, but what sets it apart was the story’s ex*****on. It’s fresh because of how its intention was presented to the audience. We are in the perspective of Bear (Michael Johnston) but even at the start, we are already being challenged on how he navigates his crush on Nikki (Inde Navarette). With a single break of the One Wish Willow, a collectible item from an occult store, Bear makes his desperate wish with the exact words; I wish Nikki Freeman to love me more than anyone in the entire world.

We can empathize with his silent woes about rejection until it gets to a certain point. The movie, according to the director himself, was not framed as a supernatural result of the wish. Rather, it was grounded into extreme human emotion. Bear’s “wish” is an allegory for desperate control and ownership of Nikki–an extreme human retaliation to the concept of rejection. Nikki’s response to the “wish” is also amped to an absurd level. The horror elements surrounding her, under the trance, are in the bizarre and dehumanizing lens of Bear facing the reality of his actions.

As for the cinematography, Obsession leans into a 4:3 ratio to capture the limited character-driven perspective of Bear. It can also mean a narrow viewpoint of what lingers in the film’s surroundings. The intentional play with the light and shadows are the film’s strongest charm, especially scenes with Nikki. One of my favorite shots was where she stood before Bear’s doorstep, with the shadow veiling her entire face and leaving only two white dots in her eyes to glimmer so faintly. If you squint a little, it’s not complete darkness. It’s such a subtle contrast, that you can still see Navarrette’s acting under the void.

Obsession, in essence, is not only a cautionary exploration of obsessive love, it’s also a deconstruction of the male gaze. In the scope of Philippine cinema, such a theme was also explored through Antoinette Jadaone’s Fangirl (2020). Although it’s a different approach from Obsession, Charlie Dizon’s character becomes collateral damage to the toxic masculinity shown through Paulo Avelino. There’s a common denominator between the two films–the desire to be loved.

The month of May for cinema has been exceptional for horror. Obsession opened doors to a new perspective of the genre beyond as many iterations of ghost stories and myths known to our culture. While our film industry has stepped its toes in the genre for a while, we yearned to witness what more it could become in the Philippines. Gone are the days where the supernatural obstructs the main character in a horror story, instead it’s the human immorality raised to an extreme which births an evil in retaliation. We want a horror more grounded to reality.

Review by Jodie Dantes
Layout by Patricia Ceneta

AKLAS MGA ACCLA! 🏳️‍🌈✊🏼

Pride is more than the stories we roll on screens; it is the truth we live everyday. 💝

While celebrating the q***r cinema, stories that truly move us, and the brilliant LGBTQIA+ filmmakers, the true centre of Pride doesn’t end when the credits roll, but it lives deeply within our hearts and our community. 🫂

This month of June, we honor the voices that challenge, break the mold and the one that teaches us to live authentically. Happy Pride Month, COMMunity! 🎬