The Wait

Set on a sweltering desert ranch in early 1970s Spain, The Wait is a handsome exercise in old-fashioned supernatural horror, feeling at times like a spaghetti western remake of The Shining (1980). The latest nerve-jangler from director F. Javier Gutiérrez, returning to his native tongue following his poorly received English-language franchise flop Rings (2017), is visually strong and reliably creepy, with promising hints of the politically charged subtext that Guillermo Del Toro brings to his Spanish period pieces. But this noir-ish thriller never quite delivers the killer twists and shock revelations it promises, remaining firmly in its superior B-movie lane. Following its world premiere in Oldenburg his week, it should draw healthy crowds at other genre-friendly festivals, but box office prospects will be limited beyond specialist fan circles.

Victor Clavijo gives a persuasively haunted but fairly one-note lead performance as Eladio, a soul-weary family man recruited by wealthy land baron Don Francisco (Manuel Morón) to manage his hunting estate in the dusty hinterlands of Andalusia. Eladio’s austere life on a remote farmstead with his scowlingly miserable wife Marcia (Ruth Díaz) and ominously innocent son Floren (Moisés Ruiz) has a hard-scrabble frontier feel, underscoring the director’s neo-western intentions. But when faced with a Faustian pact to boost his wages by accommodating extra hunting parties on the land, pushing the numbers beyond safe limits, he initially refuses on ethical grounds. As it turns out, he really has no choice in the matter, so he grudgingly pockets the money in return for turning a blind eye.

Inevitably, cruel fate soon pays Eladio back for this transgression with a series of devastating family tragedies that leave him wounded, widowed and alone. After a bloody showdown with the crooked middle-man he blames for his horrific misfortunes, he becomes a boozy recluse on the ranch, assailed nightly by suicidal thoughts and feverish visions. Bit beyond all these creepy jump-scare nightmares, the land itself begins throwing up cryptic clues, apparently directing Eladio towards some shock realisation: work contracts, scraps of clothing, dead birds, a demonic-looking goat’s skull. Piecing these unholy relics together, he begins to sense sinister, possibly Satanic forces at work.

After all these teasing hints and suspenseful swerves, The Wait fails to live up to its moody, malevolent early promise. Thematically, Gutiérrez appears to be steering viewers towards the very real horrors of Catholic guilt, the sunset years of Franco’s fascist dictatorship, and the macho matador bloodlust that underscores Spain’s savage hunting culture. These are certainly the kind of broader social currents that Guillermo Del Toro might have addressed.

And yet Gutiérrez seems to lose his nerve in the closing act, trying out a range of film noir and horror tropes without settling on a single clear, confident direction. One especially bizarre interlude plays like a superfluous homage to An American Werewolf in London (1981), even though lycanthropy plays no part in the actual plot. The revelatory pay-off, when it finally comes, is an oddly flat paranormal twist that favours sensation over explanation. This is a disappointing resolution to an otherwise well-crafted and atmospheric thriller, which nevertheless remains enjoyable as a mildly gripping spine-tingler with solid technical credits. A noteworthy factor here is Miguel Ángel Mora’s sun-bronzed widescreen cinematography, transforming the parched Andalusian landscape into a kind of grubby, fly-blown, Old Testament purgatory.

Director, screenwriter, editing: F. Javier Gutiérrez
Cast: Victor Clavijo, Ruth Díaz, Moisés Ruiz, Luis Callejo, Manuel Morón
Producers: Adrián Guerra, F. Javier Gutiérrez, Antonio P. Pérez
Cinematography: Miguel Ángel Mora
Music: Zeltia Montes
Production companies: Canal Sur Televisión (Spain), Junta de Andalucía (Spain), Nostromo Pictures (Spain), Spal Films S.L. (SPain), Unfiled Films (Spain)
Sales: Film Factory Entertainment (Spain)
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival (Independent)
In Spanish
98 minutes