Quicksand (2023) spoiler free review

Fear will drag you deeper. Quicksand is a 2023 survival horror thriller directed by Andres Beltran and written by Matt Pitts. Produced by Dawn’s Light, Sangre Films, and Elemental Stories it was distributed and released by the horror streaming service Shudder on July 14, 2023.

Follows a married couple almost divorcing who become trapped in quicksand while hiking through a rainforest in Colombia. They will battle the elements of the jungle and must work together in order to survive.

Film synopsis

The cast includes Carolina Gaitán (Encanto) as Sophia, Allan Hawco as Josh, Sebastian Eslava as Marcos, and Andrés Castañeda as Diego.

My opinion

Sophia and Josh are a couple in the middle of a divorce traveling to Colombia for a work conference. On their free day they decide to do a hiking trip to ‘El sendero la chorrera’ in the Natural Reserve Park La Chorrera. They’re warned about ‘las arenas’, a dangerous part of the trail made of quicksand and infested by poisonous snakes. But they end up being forced to cross the area and both end trapped in quicksand. With no help, a storm approaching, and snakes surrounding the place Sophia and Josh will have to push their differences aside if they want to survive.

Quicksand follows the well known formula of survival films making it predictable from the start. The story is short, simple to follow and understand without any shocking moment or plot twist. The side plot doesn’t add any groundbreaking aspect to the narrative making it unnecessary. The concept of quicksand and snakes is a good and interesting one with the potential of bringing a more emotional story but it turns just decent. Both Carolina Gaitán and Allan Hawco as Sophia and Josh did as much as the direction and scrip allowed them. Portraying a couple in the middle of a divorce with a lot of resentment for each other is the most believable and part of the film. Gaitán and Hawco are able to make their hateful feeling for each other look and feel real and while this is a positive aspect for their initial situation they’re supposed to have a moment of reconciliation and that feeling of love and affection never truly arrives. At the end Quicksand turns into another decent horror triller with missed opportunities and wasted potential.