La Région sauvage

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.

The story primarily revolves around a toxic love triangle that would be right at home in a soap opera if it weren't for all the tentacle sex.

The melodrama is a slow burn, but nothing I would call art house. The tension between the characters is nicely expressed through effective performances and a moody atmosphere.

The monster element is alluded to quickly, but takes it's time to fully materialize, keeping things subtle enough for some low key creepiness, but certainly wouldn't wet the appetite of anyone expecting a full blown creature feature.

It's a rather original premise, albeit a popular hentai theme, I'm not sure it's ever been presented as this kind of serious metaphor. Though the allegory may be thin, there's still some depth to try piece together.

One thing I can't help but mention is that the first leg of the film seems needlessly confusing as the two lead actresses look somewhat similar and the movie doesn't go out of it's way to make it clear that they are different characters. Maybe it's on me for skim reading subtitles and glazing over names, but I can't help but be curious if I'm the only one who had to pause and go "wtf, why is she hitting on her brother?"

Giving in to your lust and pleasure and indulging in it, may not be the safest thing to do. And even though we know this (even if it sometimes it's just somewhere buried deep inside, we do know it), we can not help ourselves from time to time to go overboard. Or to just simply do something that makes no sense.

All this get heightened when we mix something from far out there. Although in this case it seems enclosed and contained, it is anything but. In a way this reminds me a bit of little shop of horrors. But this is not made in a funny way and it is pretty sexual. So mix in a bit of alien Hentai and you get this here. It is explicit but while I didn't stop/pause or rewind I don't think to the point of actual penetration. Still weird stuff to say the least and obviously meant to shock in more than one way.

Story makes sense (if you get over the initial Science Fiction part of it) and is decent - again, only if you're not offended by the nature and the depiction ...

"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.

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.