Into the Abyss

When I stumbled upon the 2022 Argentinean movie "Me Encontrarás En Lo Profundo Del Abismo" (aka "Into the Abyss") by random chance here in 2024, there was no doubt about me having to sit down and watch it. The movie's cover alone was more than sufficient for me to take an interest in the movie.

Sure, I had never even heard about the movie, so writers Boris C. Q. and Matías Xavier Rispau had every possible opportunity to entertain, impress and bedazzle me with this movie. And I must admit, that even without knowing anything about the movie, I had some expectations to it from the impressive cover alone.

The narrative in "Me Encontrarás En Lo Profundo Del Abismo" is very slow paced, especially since you are mostly just following Bannon (played by Martín Rispau) around, as he scavenge through the rubble and ruins of the city where it is perpetually dark and raining. I have to admit that about halfway through the 104 minute runtime then I had almost given up twice on continue watching the movie, because the narrative was so unfathomably slow paced.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, given my very limited exposure to the Argentinean cinema. It is a pretty small cast ensemble throughout the entire movie, luckily then the acting performances were good, so the actors and actresses carried the movie well enough.

There were a few special effects throughout the course of the movie. But they definitely worked well in favor of the overall enjoyment of the movie. The large creature walking outside had an odd Lovecraftian feel to it, while the man-sized creature inside the building had a mixture of a Xenomorph and the creature from the "Feast" movies feel to it.

The cinematography is good in the movie, and it definitely feels like the audience is right there alongside Bannon in the rubble, as he struggles with staying hidden and avoiding strange creatures.

Ultimately, "Me Encontrarás En Lo Profundo Del Abismo" was cut short by the incredibly slow narrative, because it was quite a struggle to keep having an interest in the storyline when nothing overly interesting happened.

My rating of director Matías Xavier Rispau's 2022 movie "Me Encontrarás En Lo Profundo Del Abismo" lands on a four out of ten stars. This was a rather disappointing viewing experience, and the movie's cover far over-sold the movie by a landslide.

"Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The film is a vibe: A Quiet Place (2018) meets Annihilation (2018) meets The Night Eats The World (2018) meets Monsters (2010) meets The Battery (2012,) and so on.

It is a film that could have been made for five dollars or five million dollars. A beautifully shot film that drops you into the world lets you choose to keep up. It is a film deceptively paced, though it seems like a slow burn it actually moves quite quickly-There's just a focus on dialogue at times, characters are by themselves frequently so there is more silence than a modern audience might be used to. The film is as meditative as it is full of dread.

This film is just more evidence for me that some of the best Horror Films of the last 5-ish years have come out of Latin America, specifically Argentina. My only problem with the version I saw is that it was dubbed, and the ADR is not great (but not so bad it's unwatchable)-You get a real sense that the dialogue flows better in the original language.

As much as I wanted more, I feel like that need should probably be filled via rewatch.

The original plot line was extremely interesting.

The story 3/4 of the way in kept me interested to see where it was going.

Then the entire premise was abandoned for a different direction? Or psychotic break? Or they changed script writers who didn't know anything about the first story line? Or the editing room added film from some other film? The break from the plot obviously was a planned break from realty with the main character having some flashbacks to previous movies he was in or the budget was shot and the editor decided the whole thing was about not showing up to your family's gathering.

Don't waste your time until they remake the last 1/4 of the movie.

This film is just bad. The camera work is poor. It is difficult to qualify the acting because the story is just so poor and the script is so simplistic.

The city is intriguing and kept me watching in hopes that something more would be done with it. But that hope is never realized. Such a missed opportunity. A lot of questions are generated by the circumstances, the characters, and the enviornment, but none of those questions is ever adequately addressed.

I suppose the film could be "artsy" which has always seemed to me to be an excuse for bad work. Nothing is adequately explained. The story starts somewhere in the middle of something which is hinted at. If you like that sort of thing, then you might enjoy this. If you prefer a story, Arcadian or A Quiet Place or even Elevation are probably better choices.