What is an Ongo? Nocebo, the Horrifying Ending Explained

(SPOT.ph) The existence of the occult is nothing new in Philippine culture. There are people in certain parts of the country who still practice and believe in witchcraft or black magic, faith and folk healing, to name a few. You may know some of them by many names, in many variations, depending on wherever province you are from or what horror-slash-supernatural Filipino movie you watch. Mangkukulam, mambabarang, and aswang might ring a few bells—and you'll learn another from the 2022 psychological-thriller film Nocebo, which stars Filipina actress Chai Fonacier as a seemingly helpful housekeeper named Diana. Keyword: seemingly.

The Irish-Filipino film has just dropped on the popular streaming site Netflix, and it is already sitting on the seventh spot on the Top 10 Movies in the Philippines list (it’s like everyone just collectively decided to watch it over the long break)—and we know the reason why. Curious? Scroll down further, and let us walk you through this one hell of a horror movie if you don’t want to watch it by yourself. Oh, and be warned: major spoilers ahead.

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What happens in the Nocebo movie?

The film starts off on a normal day in childrenswear designer Christine’s (played by Miss Peregrine’s Eva Green) life. After parting ways with her husband Felix (Kingsmen’s Mark Strong) for work and dropping off daughter Bobs (Billie Gadsdon) at school, Christine goes straight to work, where she is met with a call. We aren’t let in on what it is, but judging by how Christine was shaken to the core, you can tell it’s horrifying news (and it truly is). Almost immediately, she spots a tick-infested dog inside the store. Standing frozen in place, Christine watches as it walks up and stares at her, not before it shakes off all the ticks onto her. One tick appears to enter her skin. 

Christine becomes really sick—from the mysterious tick, no doubt—which affected all aspects of her life; her sleep included. You can see it in her bloodshot eyes; the dark circles under them; and the shakes that keep her from fetching Bobs from school. After arriving home from work (and a failed pitch) and a little bit of shit-talking to the boss, a spoon drops out of the blue. And in true Philippine superstition, it means that a female is going to visit. In this case, Diana, who then tells Christine that “she is there to help her.”

Despite Felix and Bobs’ distrust toward the addition to the household, Diana continues to stay in the house to help. Right off the bat, something feels entirely wrong. Diana listens into the air vents and keeps a tick inside a matchbox. But, she helps around the house with cooking, cleaning—and then, with Christine’s mysterious condition using traditional folk magic. And it works. At least Christine thinks it does.

In the middle of their “healing session,” Diana reveals to Christine that she is an ongo, a role she acquired after watching one die as a child growing up in Cebu. Ongo is said to be the "most fearsome witch" that resides in the province.  Diana describes them as having great power that can either heal or destroy. Christine feels better—of course—again, and Diana continues to perform rituals in the room she stays in. We also see glimpses of Diana’s life with her daughter, who we see in a picture she keeps in the middle of the altar.

The doubtful Felix confronts Diana one night and is attacked by Bobs’ bird, which dies after he swats it away. The next day, Felix ventures to back into the room and finds Diana’s altar, as well as Christine’s medicines that went missing a few days back. The couple talks to Diana about it, but Diana offers no explanation so they make her leave. Before she leaves though, she asks Bobs for a small favor. Bobs proceeds to tell Christine that it was actually Felix who hid the medicines. The couple gets into an argument and Felix goes to sleep in Diana’s former room, then gets into an accident that ends with him in the hospital. Diana comes back to the house and they resume their “healing” session.

It is then everything unfolds. It’s revealed that Diana once worked in a warehouse that produces Christine’s childrenswear. She brings her daughter to work one day and Christine meets her and takes a picture with her—we soon realize that it’s the same picture we saw earlier in the film. Christine then orders the head to lock the doors so that “no items go missing when the employees leave.” Diana asks to leave the warehouse to get her daughter a drink, and as she does so, an accident occurs inside—causing a massive fire. The keys were lost amid the chaos, leaving all the employees and Diana’s daughter trapped inside.

Diana soon tells Christine that she isn’t healing her anymore, but rather, having her experience the tragedy through the eyes of her deceased daughter. Christine is then burnt to ashes. Meanwhile, Diana, with her goals completed has one last step to go through: she jumps off the building in front of Bobs, transferring the power of the ongo to her.

The film ends with Bobs picking up herbs in the middle of a forest with Diana’s spirit looming in the trees; watching her forever. Looking back early into the film, when Diana tells Bobs “I will be with you, always,” held another, bone-chilling meaning.

When one talks about a horror film, the first images that may come to mind are long-haired ghosts dressed in white that come out of television screens or supernatural creatures hiding under beds or in closets (have you checked yours recently?) or the general fear of the unknown. Nocebo takes all those usual horror elements and blends them with folklore to create a story that shines the light on something very, very, real. 

The film was also said to be loosely based on the Kentex Slipper Factory Fire that happened in Valenzuela last 2015.

Check out Nocebo’s trailer here:

Nocebo is available to stream on Netflix.