Untamed, The
Entry updated 27 October 2025. Tagged: Film.
Mexican film (2016; original title La Région salvaje). A Mexico / Denmark / France/ Germany / Norway / Switzerland co-production. Matarrave Producciones, Tres Tunas, Instistuto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), Fondo para la Produccíon Cinematografía de Calidad (FOPROCINE), ZDF/Arte, Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), CNC Aide aux cinémas du monde – Institut Français, Sørfond, Secreteria de Turismo del Estado de Guanajuato (SECTUR), Kansas City Southern de México. Written and directed by Amat Escalante. Cast includes Simone Bucio, Jésus Meza, Ruth Ramos and Eden Villavicencio. 100 minutes. Colour.
An elderly couple keep a tentacled Alien in a barn in the Mexican countryside, after an unidentified object (see UFOs) crashed and left a crater on their land. The alien can give sexual satisfaction to humans, and also seemingly reduces emotional anxiety. Veronica (Bucio) has been visiting it for Sex for some time, but for the first time it injures her, forcing her to go to hospital and pretend she has been bitten by a dog. She is treated by and becomes friends with Fabián (Villavicencio), an openly gay doctor who is secretly having an affair with the outwardly macho and homophobic Ángel (Meza), who is married to Fabián's sister, Alejandra (Ramos). Veronica persuades Fabián to visit the farm, and he calls off the relationship with Ángel, but is then found naked and comatose in a ditch. Alejandra finds evidence of the affair on Fabián's phone and testifies against Ángel, who has been charged with attacking Fabián.
Veronica and Alejandra become friends, and Alejandra begins visiting the alien, against the wishes of the old couple, who are concerned it is becoming more violent. Veronica is also finding it impossible to stay away, despite her previous injuries. When Ángel is released from prison he confronts Alejandra, but accidentally shoots himself in the leg. Knowing that it was the alien and not Ángel who hurt Fabián, she offers to drive him to hospital, but instead takes him to the farm and drags him into the barn. There she finds Veronica dead. Later, Alejandra and the old man dump the bodies of Ángel and Veronica into a pit in the woods, commenting that the bodies are beginning to pile up.
The mix of convoluted family drama and erotic sf that makes up this highly distinctive Mexican film, would seem ripe for camp or melodrama. In fact it is shot in a coolly restrained style that makes its excesses all the more disturbing. The evocation of a Mexico riddled with corruption, macho attitudes and casual homophobia lingers in the memory as hauntingly as the graphic human/alien sex scenes. Though it is shown only in brief moments, the alien serves as a fitting outlet for the emotional and sexual release of the women and gay men who are denied that satisfaction in normal society. Escalante won the Best Director award at the 2016 Venice Film Festival. [CWa]
links
previous versions of this entry