This low-budget thriller takes brave strides for the representation of quicksand, still seen sucking people to their doom well into the early 21st century in the likes of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This, apparently, is a fallacy; contrary to quicksand’s reputation among 12-year-olds as the most feared method of improbable death, you can’t sink all the way in. As unfortunate American hiker Josh (Allan Hawco) points out: “The weight of the mud’s density is heavier than the human body.” He must be feeling pretty confident, because he jumps in to save his wife Sofia (Carolina Gaitan).
Actually, what we have on our hands is more of a bog. So “Quagmire” might have been a better title. A floundering couple, on the brink of divorce, take the surefire route of repairing relations by deciding to go on a testing outdoor hike in the Colombian wilderness. After falling victim to a carjacking, they flee into an off-limits zone notorious for its soupy terrain. Alas, the film doesn’t do a reputational salvage job on Colombia itself, whose national parks are apparently full of venomous reptiles and venal criminals, where hotel receptionists are in league with the criminals, and where police attention is lackadaisical.
Once Josh and Sofia are enmired, Colombian director Andres Beltran’s survivalist caper is underplotted even at 85 minutes; some ants and the aforementioned snakes are pretty much all that are mustered. More critically, with your characters lodged in mud up to the shoulders, all attempts at drumming up surplus interest are rendered faintly ludicrous. This includes a feeble backstory (recovering alcoholic Josh reveals he’s still on the sauce when he uses his stashed vodka to fend off the ants) and box-ticking feminist aspirations (Sofia identifying with a fellow mother in her snake tormentor, who is trying to protect her egg).
It doesn’t help that the film takes itself with Deliverance-like seriousness, and fails to really acknowledge its absurdity. The couple’s immobility also spotlights the unfortunate disparity in the two lead performances, with Gaitan relentlessly high-strung and Hawco comically placid. More reminiscent of Beckett’s Happy Days (with added fauna and minus existentialism) than the vice-like B-movie strangulation it wants to be, Quicksand at least provides an interesting possible new avenue for marriage-guidance counselling sessions.
• Quicksand is available on Shudder on 14 July.
