The Untamed (2016)

March 22, 2021 10:13 PM

Alejandra is trapped in an unhappy marriage.

She doesn't know her violent husband is secretly having an affair with her brother. When Alejandra's brother meets Veronica, she lures him to an isolated cabin where a scientist and his wife live with an alien creature. She convinces Alejandra and her brother that the creature can help them. But what is the risk of engaging with this unknown creature?

Dedicated to Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski, who's cult film Possession served as inspiration.

posted by miss-lapin (3 comments total)

To more properly sum up this film: this would be a fairly bleak well acted kitchen sink drama about a disintegrating marriage except that there's a tentacled sex alien involved.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:13 AM on March 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

Thanks for bringing this film to my attention, I never heard of it before. Beyond the obvious tentacle sex alien, this is a beautifully told story with strong performances and some sublime cinematography. The director won the Best Director award at Venice for this and then went on to direct Narcos, and rightly so. I was thinking how bizarre it must be if someone were to see this film but missed the first 5 minutes. Much of the story would still work without the weirdness but I'm glad the filmmakers were bold enough to carry through.
posted by cazoo at 5:00 AM on March 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

I hadn't heard of it either, but it's streaming on Shudder so I decided to give it a try. I'm very happy I did.

For people who are interested in Narcos, it's currently streaming on Netflix.
posted by miss-lapin at 12:59 PM on March 24, 2021