The latest offering from Shudder’s original and exclusive platform pits marriage as the focus of turmoil and lurking doom.
The subject of marriage has been one placed under high scrutiny over the years with a high statistic of failure across the board. With such a great percentage deemed to expire within a short time frame, it seems perfect fodder for the horror genre to play with. The notion then to thrust a troubled couple Sofia (Carolina Gaitan) and Josh (Allan Hawco) literally into a quicksand , where any hope for survival is as slim as their relationship prospects is one ripe for exploration. If you pardon the expression, there’s depth to be explored, if the characters are strong in substance (as the more detail unearthed during their trepidation, the more likely we will side with their plight and will for them to pull through.
The first trick that the director Andres Piltran has to achieve this goal is to make the ordeal believable and to get our lead characters to land themselves in the titular quicksand. There’s a lot of leg work needed to get to this point, partly in building up Sofia and Josh’s backstory, casting them on a hiking trip through a Colombian rainforest This is by no means an unusual location, as not only is this a place familiar to Sofia, but both are present to run a lecture at the local university. With time to spare beforehand, they decide to venture into the jungle and as seasoned hikers, have no fears about what lay ahead, little knowing that the weather and darker elements will lead them to confront a more tragic and troublesome conflict, each other. Can their relationship survive or will it be at the cost of one of their lives?
The Prognosis:
Both Gaitan and Hawko provide compelling depictions of their character, and Director Piltran does their best to weed out a decent thriller in a fairly rigid script. It’s hard for the talent on show to wriggle out of such a tight and singular point in time. With more depth applied to the narrative and indeed each character’s perspectives, then the journey towards the climax would have been easier to endure. Ultimately this is no easy task to pull off and Piltran has just enough experience to keep it on the right side of bearable.
- Saul Muerte
Quicksand is currently streaming on ShudderANZ.
Surgeons of Horror 