by Christine Westwood
“The origin of the story was that I wanted to explore the anger that I find in the culture around me. I feel that sexuality is connected to that anger, like in homophobia, and the treatment of women.”
The first human character we see in his film is a wounded girl, Veronica (Simone Bucio) walking through the mist, traumatised. The scene shifts to the home of Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) serving a meal to her children and husband. We quickly discover the overtly macho Angel is conducting an abusive affair (reflecting his own repression and self-loathing) with his brother-in-law Fabien (Vincent Villa Vicencio). But before we meet any human protagonists, the opening scene of The Untamed is a glimpse of the world from the point of view of a nebulous, alien creature.
It is this marrying of a mundane world with a science fiction, horror theme that Escalante wanted to tackle.
“I was happy to have this strong challenge,” he says. “Introducing this Thing and integrating it into the physical world. It was mostly in the editing I saw how difficult the challenge was. I made the film play with something that wasn’t real. The sci-fi and horror freed me to express what the characters felt inside.”
What Escalante achieves is a sense of depth, taking us into a world that is mundane on the surface but references and reveals a vast undertow of primal influences where we all operate from. These impulses are a source of power, empowering or deadly depending on each person’s relationship to the creature.
Audiences seeking classic horror fare may be disappointed as the usual genre structure of menace is broken at the outset. Also, horror monsters are usually characterised by the repetitious and escalating nature of their attacks – their predictability adds to anticipation, but here the creature’s ‘attacks’ become more of a reflection of its more or less willing victims.
What Escalante achieves particularly well is an almost reality TV sense of cinema verite, immersing us in the characters’ ordinary world in such a way that lends the alien elements more strangeness. At the same time the depiction of mundane details, eating, peeing, illness underpin the sense of humans as instinctive animals.
“I work intuitively,” Escalante says. “I’m not academic or intellectual, I didn’t go to film school. The way I structure a film is not very orthodox. I wanted to do documentaries but failed! So I decided to apply that style to fiction – it was a half left-over desire. My actors are mainly non-actors. The way I cast characters for every movie is different, I have people who are close to me who help, especially my brother who knows what I like. I do casting from the street as well as actors. I found the Veronica character on Facebook, I wrote to her and she came on board but she doesn’t want to be an actor. The other three main characters have done acting. I found them through friends of friends.”
A stand-out is Ramos as Alejandra, the young mother trapped in a toxic relationship with Angel. Her performance spans a wide arc from completely believable ordinariness to an almost mythic development as her relationship with the alien progresses.
The Untamed had its first outing at the 2016 Venice Film Festival where Escalante won the Best Director award. One of his first films, Sangre (2005) found a place at Cannes and Rotterdam festivals, but it was Heli, described as “a brutal slice of working-class life in narco-terrorist Mexico,” that won him Best Director at Cannes (2013) from a jury headed by Steven Spielberg.
Even if The Untamed doesn’t quite match up to its predecessor, Escalante’s unique style and vision guarantees him an enduring place as a director to watch. In his interview with us he described his commitment to growing as a filmmaker as his work attracts more profile and backing.
“I’m not sure about the next project but I’m trying to get inspired by writing and making notes. And I’ve been looking at a project in the US for about 3 years now. I’m interested in how that would be a new experience, learning to handle a bigger production.
“Looking back at Heli it tells the story in quite a precise and different way. So it’s not the story itself so much as how it was told,” he explains. “I have changed quite a bit from the first movies I made. They were very simple narratives for practical and budget reasons. The restrictions made it easier in many ways. But in each movie I’ve tried to expand and ease restrictions. For example The Untamed is the first movie that has a soundtrack to give atmosphere not just music that the characters listen to on the radio.
“I’m also focusing more on working the scenes with the actors. I’ve come to realise that it’s through the actors that the audience has access to the film. In previous films, the actors didn’t read the script, but they did in The Untamed.
Because I work intuitively and open-ended, I find that each stage of the process is incomplete in itself from the script onwards. And when I’m shooting, I feel like I’m shooting pieces of something bigger. Once it’s finished, the perception from the audience and what they bring to the experience, completes the process. The beauty of film is that it can continue into the future, images stay in your mind and you can gain more from watching them at different times. They don’t stand still. I don’t intellectualise, I can let it be like a dream which doesn’t make sense.”
The Untamed is in cinemas October 26, 2017
