Poon, also known internationally as The Hallowed, is a Filipino horror drama movie about a supernatural threat is tied to a very specific religious object, where the people being terrorized have already given it plenty of material to work with – a family gather at their ancestral home during Holy Week following the mysterious death of patriarch Peping, where old resentment, inheritance disputes and buried family problems quickly start coming back to the surface.
Then a supernatural presence connected to a disturbing wooden religious statue known as the 13th Apostle begins targeting the youngest member of the family, Faye, turning the house into a place where past sins are no longer staying buried – directed by Adolfo Alix Jr. and written by Jerry Grácio, Poon opened in Philippine cinemas on September 9, 2026, with an R-16 classification and a 110-minute runtime – and the timing gives the film another layer because two of its biggest stars, Ronaldo Valdez and Jaclyn Jose, died before the film reached cinemas, so their performances here are their final film appearances..
Oh, and the word poon refers to a religious image or statue treated with reverence, so in the movie, the family have twelve statues representing the apostles, alongside a thirteenth statue kept as a replacement in case one of the regular figures is unavailable for a Holy Week procession, and that spare figure becomes the supernatural centre of the story.
Adolfo Alix Jr. Has Been Making Films for Two Decades
Director Adolfo Alix Jr. has been directing Philippine films since Donsol in 2006, which became the Philippines’ official submission for the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film category and played at international festivals, and his follow-up Kadin premiered at Locarno, while Tambolista was selected for Rotterdam.
That festival background is relevant because Poon eventually ended up following the same international route before its domestic release too – Alix had two films, Poon and Pila, selected for the 48th Moscow International Film Festival in April 2026, giving both films their world premieres there, where Alix himself announced the selection, describing Poon as a particularly personal project because it became the final screen showcase for Valdez and Jose.
His wider filmography also includes the horror titles such as Huwag Kang Lalabas and Mananambal.
A Three-Year Production Became Something Nobody Planned
Filming began for the filme during Holy Week in 2023 in San Miguel, Bulacan, a historic town that had already been used as the setting for another notable Philippine horror film, Mike de Leon’s Itim from 1976.
Then the production was hit by tragedy.
Ronaldo Valdez died in December 2023, followed by Jaclyn Jose in March 2024 – both had already completed the important portions of their work, meaning the filmmakers were able to retain their performances rather than recasting their central roles.
The film was produced by C-Frame Production and Banana Entertainment, with Ferdinand Lapuz listed as producer, Crystal Lacsamana as executive producer and Dennis C. Evangelista as line producer – TM Malones handled cinematography, Jay Custodio production design, Eigen Ignacio the music, and Immanuel Verona and Fatima Nerikka P. Salim the sound design.
The Cast Is Basically a History Lesson in Philippine Cinema
The ensemble is one of the film’s biggest assets on paper for this one, and this isn’t one of those cases where “all-star cast” means three recognisable names surrounded by people nobody has heard of.
Gina Pareño, Janice de Belen, Lotlot De Leon and Ara Mina are joined by Allen Dizon, JC de Vera, Bembol Roco, Martin del Rosario, Kelvin Miranda, Will Ashley and Althea Ablan – there is a particularly nice generational spread here too, because Pareño, de Belen, Jose and Valdez represent several decades of Philippine screen acting, while Ashley, Ablan and Miranda bring a much younger generation into the same ensemble.
Janice de Belen also has a long history with Philippine horror, with IMDb listing Last Viewing among her better-known credits and identifying her with horror-related roles across her career, while Ara Mina has also appeared in horror, including Shake, Rattle & Roll: Evil Origins, while Lotlot De Leon has credits in Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2 and Gabi Ng Lagim: The Movie.
So the horror credentials are fairly strong here.
The Reviews Are Pretty Divided on the Horror
The early critical reaction is mixed, and Poon certainly isn’t being received as a straightforward scare machine.
PEP.ph’s review argues that the film’s strongest material is actually the damaged family dynamic rather than the supernatural scares, praising Gina Pareño’s presence and Jaclyn Jose’s performance while describing the climax as emotionally powerful – the review also says the film can stumble as a conventional fright film but gains strength from its exploration of domestic decay.
CoverStory.ph was more positive about the atmosphere, performances and visual design, particularly praising TM Malones’ cinematography and the way the decaying ancestral setting contributes to the film’s mood, where it also notes that the large number of character threads can make the story feel dense.
Reactions on Letterboxd are similarly mixed – one reviewer rated it 4/5 and praised the film despite its slow build, while another gave it 3/5 and thought the acting and editing helped compensate for an overstuffed story, while other viewers have specifically criticised the pacing and the number of subplots while still praising the design of the poon itself.
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