Here is one of those instances where the trailer is actually better than the movie. If you've seen the trailer for Nightbird then stop! Dont bother watching the film, you've seen all the good parts already.

After watching the trailer I decided to give this movie a shot. A Filipino revenge movie?! Sure, why not. It didnt take long to realize this movie was going to be terrible. I was 3 or 4 minutes in before I realized that I had been hoodwinked with that trailer!

As far as this movie being terrible, it comes down to the writing and directing. The acting is not the best either but this movie was poorly produced. Very low budget production. The rape scene was a bit odd. It was a long scene and seemed like it was the actual climax of the movie. I say this because the actual revenge part of the film is shorter than the rape scene. The revenge part only took 5 minutes out of the last 20 minutes of the movie. I would say dont waste your time with the film......just watch the trailer.

Well, I had actually never heard about this 2023 Filipino thriller titled "Nightbird" prior to sitting down to watch it. I wasn't sure what I was in for here, aside from it being a thriller of sorts. And with it being an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course the movie got a fair chance.

The storyline in "Nightbird" was okay, though I have to say that director Lawrence Fajardo went a bit too far with the explicit depicting of the sexual assault scenes. I think the narrative would have been better off with less graphic explicit contents, with just hinting at it, and letting the audience do the rest. On that account, and because of what is shown in the movie, the movie is heavily leaning upon being an exploitation movie, while there certainly also is elements of a revenge type of movie here.

I wasn't familiar at all with a single actor or actress on the cast list, but I will say that they had casted some good performers, because the actors and actresses put on good performances in bringing their characters and the story to life on the screen.

While "Nightbird" is a watchable movie, it is without a doubt a movie that doesn't find a broad appeal with the general audience, given the rather explicit sexual assault scenes.

It should be said though, that it certainly was nice to see a movie that wasn't a goofy and generic romantic comedy, which the Filipino cinema seems to spew out by the dozens.

Watchable for what it was, though it is hardly a movie that warrants a second viewing, simply because there isn't sufficient contents and layers to the storyline.

My rating of director Lawrence Fajardo's 2023 movie "Nightbird" lands on a five out of ten stars.