Indigenous (2014)

Below mediocre, thoroughly amateurish attempt making a survival horror film in the jungles of Panama. The film is about a group of friends who decide to explore an impenetrable area called the Darién Gap.

The Darién Gap (Spanish: Región del Darién or Tapón del Darién) is a break in the Pan-American Highway consisting of a large swath of undeveloped swampland and forest within Panama's Darién Province in Central America and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department in South America.

Having learned from a friend about a beautiful waterfall in that area, which has a pool very good to swim in, they decide to undertake an expedition despite the friend's warning about a vicious creature that inhabits the area. This creature, the Chupacabra, is thought to be an evil spirit inhabiting the body of a half-man, half-animal being.

The film opens fairly straightforward as most films in this genre do. A group of tourists enjoying themselves, sucking up the atmosphere, drinking, making love to their girlfriends etc., etc. Then they decide that rather then surfing at the coast, they do something adventurous and explore this impenetrable area called the Darién Gap. They find the waterfall as the friend said. They then bathe in the pool below the waterfall for a while, till one of the couple decides to leave and do deeper into the jungle. Then all hell breaks loose...

The director, I feel, is unable into inject a real spark into this film. The actors that were chosen did their jobs as per the script. But the script itself is so obviously dull and predictable, that we already know what direction the film is headed at. In the past I saw a survival action-horror film that set the benchmark for all movies of its genre. This film was Predator, a 1987 film directed by John McTiernan. Also note that The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter is also a survival-horror film. Basis of such movies is an outer-space alien killing off humans.

More films you may like: Dawn of the Dead(1978), Tremors(1990), Jaws(1975), Shakma(1990), Prince of Darkness(1987), 30 Days of Night(2007).

Thank you for reading this review. May you live long and prosper.