#STUCK IN QU STUCK IN QUICKSAND MOVIE#
#STUCK IN QU STUCK IN QUICKSAND SKIN#
#STUCK IN QU STUCK IN QUICKSAND SERIES#

#STUCK IN QU STUCK IN QUICKSAND MOVIE#

We’re forever chasing the thrills that a great scary movie can bring, which is no easy feat the more entrenched in the genre we become. If there’s one thing horror fans love the most, it’s a solid scare that gets the adrenaline pumping. Shudder debuts Quicksandon July 14, 2023. Even at a brisk 85-minute runtime, Quicksand often feels stretched too thin.īut it does at least make for a sufficient marriage counseling exercise.

Instead, it’s reduced to a grim and serious marriage metaphor plot device. Nor does the jungle element come through as much as it could. The hunters and Las Arenas never get explored beyond setting up the plot, even as a side story incorporates them. On the other hand, Quicksand never once acknowledges how outlandish this scenario can be. On the one hand, Beltrán’s commitment to taking the couple’s predicament seriously results in compelling set pieces and a tender approach to characters that ultimately endear. It results in a feature at odds with itself. Josh and Sofia ultimately encounter too few obstacles, each getting briskly swept aside to give precedence to deep-seated relationship issues. But the marriage woes take up too much space in this underplotted thriller, leading to a repetitive, superficial pattern.

On that front, Hawco’s disarming empathy and Gaitán’s relatable resentment of forced pragmatism lend realism and rooting interest. Each jungle obstacle peels back layers to Jack and Sofia’s history, humanizing the initially icy Sofia and revealing a fuller picture that led to their crumbling relationship. Once the spouses get firmly lodged in place, enmeshed in unforgiving mother nature, the plotting slows to a crawl as the script relies on scant few encounters with slithering animals to submerse Josh and Sofia in a primal marriage counseling of sorts. The grueling exhaustion from the thick muck holding them in place, threatening to pull them under completely, is effective thanks to the tangible component. Josh and Sofia get sucked into more of a boggy mud pit that makes their physical performances palpable. The icy tension between the pair only heightens the punishment mother nature has in store for them.Ĭarolina Gaitan as Sofia and Allan Hawco as Josh in Quicksand – Photo Credit: Manuel Olarte/Shudderīeltrán takes a tactile, practical approach to the setting.

#STUCK IN QU STUCK IN QUICKSAND SERIES#

A series of events sees the pair venturing unwittingly out to Las Arenas, where they wind up trapped in quicksand with no way out and no one aware of their location. It’s exacerbated by Josh’s eagerness to take a hiking excursion while the more rigid Sofia longs to get business done and return home to the kids. The estranged couple is gearing up for divorce, making this business trip even more uncomfortable. Cut to couple Josh ( Allan Hawco ) and his wife Sofia ( Carolina Gaitán ) as they head to a medical conference in Bogotá but the car ride there is rife with friction despite Josh’s best efforts to diffuse the tension.

#STUCK IN QU STUCK IN QUICKSAND SKIN#

It leaves the thrills underplotted in Quicksand, however.Īn opening sequence introduces the unforgiving terrain a pair of poachers prowl a dangerous area of the Colombian jungle called Las Arenas to hunt and retrieve valuable skin from a venomous snake. Director Andrés Beltrán and writer Matt Pitts approach the B-movie concept with a seriousness that nearly works for their efficient thriller, placing relevance on the emotional stakes for its leads over jungle thrills. Shudder survival thriller Quicksand builds an entire premise around its namesake, leaving a bickering, estranged married couple trapped in a pit of despair.

Stuck in qu stuck in quicksand