Zanjoe Marudo stars in the Cinema One Originals digital film Altar, now showing at Cine Malaya Film Festival. It can also be considered as Zanjoe Marudo's first leading role in a film, although his film debut is last year's big hit "You've Got Me" with Toni Gonzaga. Altar is a horror-suspense film that Zanjoe Marudo stars with actress Dimples Romana.
"Horror-suspense ito tungkol sa isang boksingero na nag-retiro sa States dahil nakapatay siya ng kalaban niya. Pagbalik niya sa Pilipinas nagtrabaho siya sa isang bahay bilang karpentero at sa bahay may basement na mayroong multo na ang pwede lang makapatay sa demonyo ay isang tao na may malinis na puso na nakagawa na ng kasalanan," Zanjoe said. Translation (hehe): Altar is a suspense-drama-thriller film that tells the story of Anton (Zanjoe Marudo), a professional boxer in the United States who accidentally killed an opponent in the ring.
He returns to the Philippines and finds himself jobless. He is hired as a carpenter by a mysterious foreman named Erning, who assigns him and a man named Lope to renovate a creepy, old house on the border of the city.
They soon discover that the place is haunted by the apparition of a young girl, and that the basement carries a strange wooden altar for an unknown deity. Truly blood-curling events followed one after the other, snowballing into a deeply disturbing and violent climax.
"Dark siya malalim at saka first time ko pa lang makakita at makarinig ng ganyang istorya, so kakaiba," added Zanjoe. Zanjoe Marudo said it was a bit difficult to shoot the film since in real life, he is scared of the unknown, "Wala akong experience na nakakatakot pero matatakutin ako sa mga ganyan, nahirapan ako kasi parang first time kong gagawin. Malakas siyang makakuha ng energy kasi iba ang acting na kailangan dito hindi siya nakakatawa o ma-drama ‘yong takot, kailangang mapaniwala mo ang tao na mayroon talaga."
Altar has been too film festivals abroad. It was screened in the 2008 Vancouver Film Festival in Canada and the Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy earlier this year. Altar is directed by Rico Maria Ilarde and has been shot for 8 straight days. Zanjoe hopes that he could win an award for it.