Film Alert: 'Quicksand' - Review
Jungle Survival B-Movie with Some Unfortunate Restraint
For quite a while, Shudder has become the home of plenty of B-movie and Grindhouse-like pictures. It has been a safe haven for both old films that were played at a midnight slate at a drive-in (Ms. 45, The Switchblade Sisters) and new ones that are being given the spotlight they deserve, making horror fans delighted to check them out (Revealer, Allegoria). The platform’s latest original feature is Andre Beltran’s Quicksand, a film that calls back to the classic horror jungle survival flicks with a modern touch.
The film delivers exactly what it says on the tin — a woman fighting for her life as she’s slowly sinking in quicksand — yet shies away from escalating things to a highly entertaining degree. I felt the director could have come up with more ridiculous and thrilling sequences, crafting more tense set pieces and adding more value to a project like this. And while I found myself enjoying a great chunk of Quicksand for its suspenseful jungle survival horror moments, a part of me still felt unsatisfied once the credits arrived.
Here’s an excerpt from my review:
Quicksand begins with a crime side plot that adds nothing to the film’s narrative. Two people walk through treacherous paths, a mossy forest with plenty of dangers lurking around. We don’t know what they are searching for. However, during a quick briefing between two disconnected characters, it is mentioned that they were apparently hunting snakes. But all we know so far is that this setting will be the playground where director Andres Beltran experiments with jungle survival tropes, as one of the hunters gets trapped inside the titular colloid of fine granular material and water.
The film later transitions into showing a bit of backstory of the film’s leads, Sofia (Carolina Gaitán) and Josh (Allan Hawco), before it gives us what we are waiting for. They are having some marital issues, with a divorce coming their way as a means to end this relationship once and for all. Things are about to get even worse when they go to Colombia and visit a close friend of theirs, Marcos (Sebastián Eslava), who doesn’t know they are on the brink of separating. What happens between them doesn’t matter; in the long run, the rushed exposition dump leads these slowly separating partners to hike in the rainforest. The hotel’s concierge tells them they have two paths, one of which, called “las arenas” (the sands in English), they must avoid at all costs.
As they head to their destination, heavy rain comes down on them. It forces them to return to the hotel as they don’t want to get hurt. However, someone is breaking into their car as they head back. He has a gun and wants all their money and belongings. This is the same man we saw during the film’s first couple of minutes. But his presence and connection with the concierge here aren’t explained in the least. It felt like the writers forgot about this part of the story and left it like that to create more tension (and failed to do so). Nevertheless, after the altercation, the mysterious man threatens them, which causes Josh to “be the hero,” as Sofia describes, and attacks him.
Read my full review for Loud & Clear Reviews HERE.
Quicksand will be available to watch on Shudder from July 14, 2023.