La Région sauvage

There is a nod to director, Zulawski in the closing credits of this film and no wonder. What is surprising is that I have never quite got round to seeing Possession, the evening for indulging in the spectacle of Isabelle Adjani engaged (in reality or not) with a many tentacled creature, has never quite come around, and then I fall into this. 'Disgusting', 'unnecessary', 'science-fi' 'entrancing', and 'disturbing yet beautiful', various parties have cried but only the last two can I possibly concur with. The difficult roles are well played, including two young children, and although the film is peppered with graphic sex and violence, it is that element of doom that worries the most. For such a vivid film, including much that is most alluring, there is clearly established the threat of something terrible in the woods and more specifically, the cabin in the woods. Appalling, amazing, affecting and surprisingly survives explicit revelations concerning the being when might have expected that less might be more.

"Phallocentric" fiction comes to mind when this bizarre Mexican horror film, The Untamed, opens with Veronica (Ruth Ramos) masturbating or not; in a short while Ale (Simone Bucio) has a snake-like creature leaving her vagina. Well, this is like no other alien you have ever seen, and its power to make sexually crazy more than one object of its affection propels a little sci-fi into Freudland and for a long time into the audience's imagination, not soon to leave.

Mexican auteur Amat Escalante has crafted an odd drama about frustrated young adults, one of whom, Angel (Jesus Meza), is having an affair with Ale's brother. Angel, of course, acts like a macho homophobe when he isn't either. He's a coward tormented by his closeted world.

But have no fear, for your tentacled alien, housed in the dark woods by a troubled couple, can bring pleasure and destruction when the situation suits. Because this giant phallus is addictive, the victims come back for more until it all isn't safe anymore.

If you long for philosophical ruminations, such as Rod Serling might give at the end of a Twilight Zone segment, forget it. So deeply is the passion of the players buried in their primitive sexual desires, we enter a spiritual realm that despite the octopus-like alien is a figurative representation of repression and liberation and not easily explained.

After all, the rapture of the enraptured is depicted as if a python had coiled its victim in readiness for a very big feast. As in life itself, the sway of sexuality can be underestimated but never avoided. The Untamed proves in a figurative way what we all knew from the nuns, namely, sex is a killer.

Be warned that this Mexican horror film has some graphic nudity and alien/human sexuality. This is not a giveaway as the opening scene makes quite clear where this is headed. A young woman, Veronica, is in a room in a moment of what seems to be self induced pleasure, when, something not of this earth exits her most private of parts. We are off to the races. Veronica is injured during the encounter and meets a nurse at the hospital who befriends her. His sister Alejandra is in an abusive marriage and has two kids. Veronica informs Ale of meeting someone(ha ha, E.T.) who has changed her life for the better. It seems that she has become a matchmaker for the slithering creature from outer space. What follows is some extremely unpleasant human/alien couplings not for those with weak stomachs. In the end I was entertained by this Mexican thriller.

The Untamed wasn't terrible. It's a science-fantasy or space opera story: an alien falls to Earth and radiates sexual satisfaction, affecting man, woman, and beast. I generally like this type of story, and it was well acted for the most part, with good production values.

But the plot seemed to drag quite often. I think the reason is, we don't get much communication from the women or the man most directly affected: How is penetration of multiple orifices by this non-verbal, non-human, definitely not cuddly beast superior to or substantially different from penetration (presumably of multiple orifices) by those folks' not-very-verbal, not very communicative, not-sticking-around-to-cuddle human partners? This is not at all clear. Neither is it clear how some people were injured, nor why, knowing the risks, some people continued to rendezvous with the alien.

Normally we would say, "Show, don't tell." But doing that would have turned the film into pure porn. Okay, why not tell us, using the usual stratagem of one character sharing their experience and their feelings with another character, so we get to overhear it? We see how the situation creates peripheral, real-word problems for the characters, but that just wasn't enough - for me - to build empathy. It left me cold, and the rather cavalier, nonchalant attitude expressed in the final scenes did nothing to build any redeeming affection for the characters.

It's okay, but the writers and director let us down, because it could have been a lot better.

It's a sort-of sci-fi relationship drama that is single-minded in its approach to sexual dynamics with a handful of characters dedicated to instant gratification. I really liked this film. The story, acting, cinematography and setting were all compelling to me, but I can't say it's amazing.

It presents itself as a mystery, drip-feeding information to the viewer. But it really isn't a mystery. There is no 'whodunnit' element. It is always very clear who does what and why, so the audience is left with very little to ponder or think about as the story unfolds. There are plenty of intentional plot holes (the sci-fi elements are almost entirely unexplored) but they are ultimately irrelevant to the main story. That's the problem. There is no grand metaphor here. There are no conundrums to puzzle over and, after watching it, the questions you have won't be about the characters or the events or themes or what it all means. You know exactly what it all means. You may have simple questions, like who were the couple in the woods? Why didn't they do x,y or z? But your mind won't be whirring with heady concepts, which is what I demand from good sci-fi.

It's a simple film that could really benefit from a deeper subtext or some novelistic elements to give the story more 'meat'. However, as a streamlined drama that takes a prurient look at sexual frustration and secret desires, it's incredibly well presented and has mostly excellent performances. Overall, it's a bold and very unique story. Movies like this don't come around often and so I can strongly recommended it for fans of horror, sci-fi and mystery (even though it is none of those things!).