THIS QUICK REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
A Spanish indie film exploring the concept of escapism and pleasure. This film, released in 2016, is a Spanish horror film with sci-fi elements. The film explores the idea of sexuality, and its deeper meanings. So, what could be the deeper meaning, and why is there an alien octopus, giving pleasure? Throughout the film. We see the alien providing pleasure to the characters, but is somehow feeding off. The psychic energy. Once we see a person enter, It's Chambers we can see that they feel a sense of Euphoric, a sense of relief, a sense of Freedom, Due to this alien absorbing these energies. On the other hand the story itself focuses more on a young wife called Alejandra, played by Ruth Ramos. Who is in a disturbing and abusive relationship! The father: Angel, played by Jesus Meza, who is constantly battling with his sexuality, due to him being in a secret relationship with his wife, brother: Fabian, played by Eden Villavicencio. With Alejandra's life in shambles, Veronica enters her life, a woman with knowledge of experiencing a form of primitive pleasure.
Veronica explains that there is a place in a cabin. Underneath this cabin, a creature could solve all her problems—both in the physical and spiritual sense. Now the creature's design is very reminiscent of a squid, and if you want to break down the history of sexual pleasure and Beastiality. You have to look at Japan, were during the eno period they were not allowed to show any sexually explicit images. So what they would draw was women being sexually pleasured by animals. The most iconic. Being a giant squid, due to them being reminiscent of the penis.
Later in the film, there is a wide shot of this creature's pleasuring the main character. The tentacles wrap around her body, but what we see is the creature is feeding off her psychic energy. However, suppose the person is not cleared emotionally, or the psychic energy is little. In that case, It begins to hurt them and even kill them. We see this with the main character, brother and Veronica. They are constantly pleasured by it but need to keep their distance due to the lack of psychic or spiritual essence. Some theories of the creature are that if you cannot let go of your physical and mental pain, the creature would forcefully remove it, which means it would kill you. Therefore, we see these older couples constantly warning people to keep their distance and not always visit it. Going back to exploring sexuality but at the same time exploring pleasure and how much we crave it, after all, sex is a drug.
The perfect example will be Veronica. Do we see her at the beginning of the film being pleasured by this creature or hurt by it?
All the while, the film is foreshadowing something dark. We see Veronica leaves town, so she is not drawn back to the creature. She sleeps with a truck driver, only realising nothing can truly pleasure her and the loneliness she feels will never leave her. Her constant need for pleasure and sense of euphoria is only met with this creature.
Once the main character is reunited with her abusive husband, she is offered two choices. To go back to this life of abuse and suffering or take matters into her own hands and Introduce him to the creature.
As mentioned before, the creature has a sci-fi alien look but with tentacles. It delivers this haunting appearance yet strangely peaceful.
We see the creature entirely when it approaches the husband. It doesn't show any sharp teeth, and it doesn't show anything monstrous. It is simply staring at the husband, approaching him slowly with its tentacles, to the point that even the husband doesn't feel Afraid. He is drawn to it. Almost as if he is accepting himself and who he truly is.
The film itself is not perfect. But it is enjoyable. I wish the film could've explored more of this creature and what else it could provide; however, all we got to know is that it gives pleasure, for a cost. The film may be asking us how far would we go for out-of-this-world pleasure. To feel a sense of relief from the challenging world outside, even if it means sacrificing our old self for it or even being abused by it.
No Input Production gives it 3.5 NIP.
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