Quicksand is an apt analogy for life’s dilemmas – the harder you wrestle, the faster you sink until you are over your head, but the less resist, the clearer the solution becomes. Case in point: Andrés Beltrán’s (Tarumama) forthcoming English-language Colombian survival thriller Quicksand exemplifies just how true the above preamble is.
Directed by Beltrán, from a script by Matt Pitts (“Westworld”) and starring Carolina Gaitán (Encanto) and Allan Hawco (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan), this Shudder original film focuses on an American couple on the verge of divorce who travel to Colombia to attend a work conference. They make plans to hike through the rainforest as they have some free time beforehand, but a series of unexpected circumstances leaves them trapped in a pit of quicksand. Unable to move, their predicament becomes a fight for survival as they battle the elements of the jungle and a poisonous snake to escape; and in doing so, it starts to dawn on them how many of the most important aspects of their lives they have been neglecting.
Quicksand will make its exclusive streaming debut on Friday, July 14 on Shudder and will also be available to stream on AMC+ and in anticipation of the release, SCREAM caught up with the film’s two leads, Gaitán and Hawco, to discuss the power of the film’s claustrophobic, close-quarters setting which triggers almost identical emotional states in the audience as the protagonists themselves, and how they went way beyond the call of duty, floating in a sand pit day in and day out for five weeks to ensure the most authentic, anxiety-inducing experience possible.
Words: Howard Gorman
