Quicksand Review: A Sticky Survival Situation

Survival horror is about more than just a scary situation. Yes, there's something inherently scary about being trapped in a flooded house surrounded by hungry alligators ("Crawl") or trying to stay alive while perched atop a derelict TV tower ("Fall"). We can picture ourselves in these situations, and filmmakers know that, but to really drive the horror home, we also need something human to latch onto, a sense that we not only can imagine the terror but relate to the people experiencing it.

"Quicksand," a Shudder original horror film from writer Matt Pitts and director Andrés Beltrán, goes into this challenge with what feels like a particularly tall order. Quicksand is, for most of us, an obstacle we most often encounter in comedies, either through some kind of adventure spoof or a flat-out cartoon. It's not as inherently scary as a shark or an alligator or even a fall from a great height, so building an entire horror film around it is at least a little tricky.

Sadly, that trickiness shows in the final product. While there's plenty to enjoy in "Quicksand" and the film does manage some convincing scares and reasonably consistent tension, it's a film that never quite fully delivers on the terrifying scenario it attempts to set up.

The ill-fated couple at the heart of the story is Sofia (Carolina Gaitàn) and Josh (Allan Hawco), two doctors who've arrived in Sofia's homeland of Colombia for a conference, doing their best to keep up appearances even as they're on the brink of divorce and can't stop bickering. When Josh challenges Sofia's interest in a hike to a famous local waterfall, she decides to make the trek herself, which leaves him feeling obligated to go along.

What starts as a tense hike between two former lovers soon turns into something more dangerous when an unexpected encounter in the forest sends Sofia and Josh fleeing into a dangerous part of the wilderness known as "Las Arenas." There, they both end up in a thick, potentially deadly patch of quicksand, surrounded by nothing but trees and deadly snakes. With little room to maneuver, and even less hope of rescue, the couple must find a way to work together to survive in an environment when every moment could drag them deeper into the quagmire.

The narrative tension here isn't hard to pin down, and to their credit, the filmmakers don't waste a lot of time trying to make "Quicksand" into something it's not. We meet Sofia and Josh, we see the problems in their relationship, and then we watch them descend into a natural death trap side by side, marshaling limited resources to try to find a way out. With a lean runtime of under 90 minutes, there's not a lot of fat on this film, and the ingredients of the narrative are both clear and precise. In terms of a straightforward survival horror scenario, it's got everything you need to enjoy yourself.

That sense of enjoyment carries through to the cast, who are wonderfully game for the concentrated chaos of the film's scenario. Much of "Quicksand" unfolds, bravely, in a single location, with two actors who can barely move and who have only themselves and the elements to react against. Gaitàn and Hawco rise to the situation well, and when it comes to putting the audiences into the hearts and minds of the characters, they flat-out force certain parts of the film to work through the sheer power of their performances. Huge chunks of the film are just the two of them trying to fight back panic as they talk through various scenarios for getting out alive, and they're able to make those sequences dynamic and emotionally satisfying, even as the film does fall back on some very predictable survival horror tropes.

But the tropes aren't really the biggest drawback to "Quicksand," because let's be honest: If you saw the trailer, you know exactly what kind of movie this is, and that's probably what you're signing up to watch. Instead, the biggest issue with the film is its often clumsy effort to balance build-up with payoff. The tension, in this case, is far better than the reveal, and that means that "Quicksand" feels like a front-loaded effort that can't carry its energy all the way through a relatively short runtime.

Still, for survival horror fanatics or for people who are just looking for a creepy little wilderness adventure, there's enough here to have a good time. Despite its shortcomings, "Quicksand" manages to be a solid new entry in the Shudder horror library and a fun way to spend a Friday night.

"Quicksand" premieres July 14 on Shudder.