Exploring the Depths of Desire: Amat Escalante's 2016 Genre-Bender
Key Highlights :
In 2016, director Amat Escalante released a genre-bender that pushed the limits of science fiction cinema. This overlooked film, , is a unique combination of social realist drama and sci-fi thriller that explores the depths of human desire and the consequences of its fulfillment.
The film opens with a mysterious meteorite that lands in a rural town in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. In the aftermath of its arrival, Verónica (Simone Bucio), a young local woman, finds herself in an intimate encounter with an extraterrestrial entity. Its moist, phallic tentacles caress her naked body in a scene that is both disconcerting and entrancing. This creature, which Verónica later describes as only giving pleasure, is hidden inside an unassuming cabin and under the care of an elderly couple, trained scientists who believe it’s no longer safe for Verónica to visit the creature. Verónica is instead tasked with finding new sexual partners to satisfy its supernatural libido.
Meanwhile, in town, Ángel (Jesús Meza), a married father of two, is having an affair with his brother-in-law Fabian (Eden Villavicencio). Unsuspecting of Ángel’s betrayal, his wife, Alejandra (Ruth Ramos), submits to his chauvinist behaviors. To hide his own repressed sexuality and self-hatred, Ángel constantly defaults to homophobic remarks. The destinies of these characters converge when Verónica befriends Fabian and invites him to experience the bodily elation of sleeping with the unnamed life form. The repercussions of this encounter will rattle them all.
Escalante’s examination of our most ingrained impulses extends to the predilection we have for eating animal meat. The camera focuses on a pile of pork at a local market and later on a plate of cooked beef, connecting this to Ángel’s repulsion for meat after a childhood trauma involving his father’s affinity for hunting deer. This imagery also explores the illicit connotation that Ángel associates with homosexual acts.
The mesmerizingly grotesque figure of the creature, crafted by the Danish VFX effects team, looks believable in its organic tangibleness. When Escalante finally reveals the alien form in full as a squid-like mass, we witness Alejandra reclaiming her life in the extraterrestrial’s embrace. The violent destinies of these characters converge when Verónica befriends Fabian and invites him to experience the bodily elation of sleeping with the unnamed life form. The repercussions of this encounter will rattle them all.
Guiding a group of mostly first-time actors, Escalante obtains a bevy of naturalistic performances that preserve their grounded quality even as they interact with the story’s unearthly undercurrents. The filmmaker’s unflinching realism takes on an uncanny aura as he explores the carnal urges that are the purest of instincts. Nature is presented as fluctuating between idyllic and unnerving through cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro’s shots of a celestial open sky that contrasts with still frames of the enigmatic forest.
One of the most uniquely rendered Mexican films of the last decade, makes us wonder what it’d feel like to be wrapped in the cosmic warmth of the alien’s squiggly arms, where all the answers to the questions of existence and the universe reside. Director Amat Escalante pushes the boundaries of science fiction cinema in this overlooked 2016 genre-bender, creating a unique exploration of human desire and the consequences of its fulfillment.
