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The Wasteland is in my opinion, an astonishing marvel. It’s an unnerving yet familiar blend of bits: one being a quarantine horror film produced during the pandemic and the other or rather the central being, is set in 19th-century Spain. Introducing a rather limited cast of three characters: a father a mother and their son Diego. Diego, along with his parents has to deal with a beast that stirs havoc outside of their isolated home. What’s crazier is he alongside his parents saying away from a violent civil war that completely shattered their country. Although it is captivating in a way, it is only engaging for a limited amount of time. The Wasteland allows you to easily seep into its world of discomfort like the glow of a candle, however, it is not as claustrophobic as it has the potential to be.
Asier Flores does the character of Diego justice with the perfect blend of energy and intensity that shines through when the young actor decides to put his heart and soul into the character. Diego, to his parents am I right, is nothing but a witness. Diego looks at his parents for the answer to the beast that instills fear in him and he can see his father hoping for the beast to stay in his imagination while his mother attempts to control the situation and remove the beast from the equation altogether. Diego’s father, Salvador, opts for a less talkative approach which instills the idea of less being said and more done, when he gifts Diego a fully customized rifle for his birthday. Diego’s mother, on the other hand, however, seems more at ease. Believing she could bring Diego through the unknown world by removing him from the grip of violent monsters.
Diego is constantly trying to understand how his parents are coping with everything by quietly observing them. The three performers give powerful performances that every so often balance the self-indulgent attitude of the story The Wasteland does get dull but there are dimensions to it.
Diego is quite limited and can’t travel too far from the house, and while he is able to access the toilet at night, it requires one of his parents to fetch a rifle first. The terrain surrounding their house is quiet and open, adding to their woes. Not much needs to be said about mystery. It has a great deal of power and is served beautifully by director David Casademunt, who crafts this rich world alongside co-writers MartĂ Lucas and Fran MenchĂ³n. He uses static wide-shots to mesmerize the distraught beauty of their home while capturing the moon and candlelight, yet The Wasteland stands out as sleek and minimalistic. For a while, there isn’t even an impression of what the monstrosity looks like and the story makes no use of it.
Even the idea of it poses a threat, what with a scene in which a man covered in blood emerges from a boat, which is one of the film’s amazing, terrifying, makeup effects.
In later developments where our emotions are not welcome, The Wasteland turns into a survival story and the paranoia creature attacking his parents is a metaphor that flattens while the movie’s slow burn weathered. There’s a Diego scene where he learns that the beast feeds on someone’s ever so vulnerable emotion and that lack of subtlety early is simply a signal as to how metaphor a movie will hammer in, using blunt horror techniques instead of enriching with the metaphors.
I am somewhat disappointed with Casademunt’s efforts. He arranges a few modest horror set pieces usually with made-you-look editing, screaming string sections, or heart attacks. Everything feels so unoriginal that it lacks the depth required to invoke emotions later on. The Wasteland is a novel for writing horror movies that has more powerful visuals than most of the genre’s films, but that also fails to invoke greater fear. It’s more for the director’s reel, not nightmares.
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