[31 Days of Horror: Reboot] Day 18

Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez
Cast: Victor Clavijo, Ruth Diaz, Moises Ruiz, Pedro Casablanc, Manuel Moron
Screenplay: F. Javier Gutiérrez
102 mins. Not Rated.

The Wait is a completely different film to Rings, the previous effort from writer/director F. Javier Gutiérrez. That’s for the best, as coming off an important franchise extension that was so overproduced to something much smaller and more intimate makes for a better showcase of his talents.

Eladio (Victor Clavijo, Before the Fall) has been charged with overseeing the hunting stands of Don Francisco’s estate. When he accepts a bribe to add more stands and net some much-needed money, he unknowingly sets into motion events that will see an unraveling, both of his family and his own psyche.

Gutiérrez’s screenplay is perhaps a bit too slow and methodical for its own good, but his direction keeps an uneasy and uncertain tone shrouding the entire proceedings. The Wait is in a constant state of indeterminate flux, the characters falling deeper and deeper into tragic mental and emotional ruin. This is further aided by the incredible lead performance of Clavijo as Eladio. His plunging into madness only works because he’s able to imbue so much emotion and meaning into a relatively unwavering expression.

Sadly, I think the second half of the film is hampered by an inability to move the story forward. Clavijo is doing as much as he can with the material, but once the initial tragedies play out, the film loses most of its forward momentum, and the most fascinating parts of Eladio’s character growth in the latter half are indecisive. The pacing is so slow I would almost argue against calling it a horror film at all, outside of an excellent dream sequence that would have been more interesting as actual plot than imaginary.

The meat of The Wait is in its early half, which builds nicely to a tragic revenge throughline before becoming a bit too meandering to maintain interest. It’s an ultra-slow burn that nearly fizzles out of heat too early, but it has a great lead performance, a tense score, and some of Gutiérrez’s strong visuals to aid it.

2.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of F. Javier Gutiérrez’s Rings, click here.