The Gutter’s own Carol Borden has some thoughts on F. Javier Gutierrez’s latest film screening this week at Fantastic Fest 2023! The Wait / La Espera is a well-crafted Neo-Western/ folk horror-ish film that does not quite make it for me. In early 1970s Spain, Eladio (Victor Clavijo) moves his family to rural Andalusia to take up a post managing the hunting on the estate of a local rural gentleman, Don Francisco (Manuel Morón). But Eladio is tempted and his family is destroyed. And for the first half of the film we watch as Eladio suffers from guilt and self-loathing. But hints of folk horror crop up in the ground, in his dinner, and in his dreams. The film is a slow burn, and I love a slow burn, but the ending feels rushed. It’s is not the final revelation of dreadful horror that a film this well-crafted deserves. And though I am willing to love a movie, especially a Western for its cinematography alone, I think The Wait suffers from not weaving in more folk horror elements sooner. As an aside, I wish The Wait had made more use of Don Francisco because Morón has such big Adolfo Celi energy.

None of this is to say that The Wait is a bad film. The acting is excellent. The cinematography and visual storytelling are fantastic. If you like Neo-Westerns, slow pacing that gives you time to appreciate everything on the screen, and actors acting their hearts out as tormented men, The Wait delivers all of that. It’s just that The Wait had such potential to be so much more.

CW for The Wait / La Espera: suicide; child death; dog death.

The Wait screens again at Fantastic Fest 2023 :

Tuesday, Sep. 26 at 11:30 pm CDT, Theater 4.

For a longer initial impression, read more here.