The Wasteland on Netflix is a new Spanish horror movie (original title El páramo). It’s very much a slow-burn experience with psychological and creature feature elements. Fortunately, the acting is spot-on! Read our full The Wasteland movie review here!
The Wasteland is a new Netflix horror movie. This one is from Spain (original title El páramo) and we do love our Spanish genre films. Well, usually, anyway. I can’t say I loved this one, but I was intrigued and the acting is (as always) on point.
On IMDb, the movie has the default title of “The Beast” which also makes sense. This Spanish horror movie is part creature feature (though not much is seen) and part psychological horror (mostly, actually). The main thing with this Netflix horror movie is the mystery and slow-burn which is only held together by strong acting performances.
Continue reading The Wasteland movie review below and find it on Netflix now.
The Wind meets Antlers… well, sort of!
Without giving away too much of anything about The Wasteland, I can describe it as The Wind meets Antlers. If you haven’t watched either of these, we can highly recommend them.
The mystery and scenery of The Wind is an obvious comparison since The Wasteland also plays out in a barren and secluded area. Also, it’s slow-burn as well and uses psychological horror to carry the plot.
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Antlers, on the other hand, is easily brought to mind by the fact that a young boy is at the heart of this story. In fact, we follow him from beginning to end. He is curious and at first very protected by his mother, but it doesn’t last when things get tough.
She tries using tough love to make him strong and it doesn’t really work. That’s all I’ll say about that.
Jump scares just miss the mark
Unlike Antlers, which was also a slow-burn experience, it hit all its horror marks perfectly. The Wasteland is always just a beat off. Even a classic scene with laundry hanging out to dry doesn’t really work. This is something we’ve seen work perfectly in movies like The Conjuring or even both adaptions of It.
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What does work really well for The Wasteland is the acting. Especially from the mother and son, who have the most screentime by far. The mother, Lucia, is portrayed by Inma Cuesta who you might know from the Netflix series Criminal: Spain or The Mess You Leave Behind.
The boy, Diego, is portrayed wonderfully by Asier Flores, who has also been part of the Netflix series Someone has to Die. Also, the father, Salvador, is portrayed by Roberto Álamo from the brilliant serial killer thriller May God Save Us (2016).
Watch The Wasteland on Netflix now!
David Casademunt is the director and co-writer of The Wasteland. The screenplay was also written by Martí Lucas and Fran Menchónch. This is the feature film debut for David Casademunt and the potential is clearly there! For this movie, the selling points and the actual content just don’t match very well.
The Wasteland on Netflix is billed as a horror movie and it is. However, it utilizes symbolism to a very large degree, which I don’t think people will expect.
Especially not from a horror movie that also sells itself as a creature feature. I mean, one of the English titles has even been The Beast. Do check it out but try to set your expectations accordingly.
The Wasteland (org. title El páramo) is out on Netflix from January 6, 2022.
Details
Director: David Casademunt
Writers: David Casademunt, Martí Lucas, Fran Menchón
Stars: Inma Cuesta, Roberto Álamo, Asier Flores, Alejandra Howard
Plot
The tranquility of a family that lives isolated from society is suddenly disturbed by a horrific creature that would put the bounds that tights them to test.
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