The Untamed
Strand Releasing | Release Date: July 21, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Film StageRory O'ConnorSep 17, 2016
The Untamed does that very rare thing in cinema in that it blends mystery, horror and pseudo-reality with a kind of dark subconscious arousal. Read full review
90
Village VoiceApril WolfeJul 19, 2017
The director’s strength is in crafting fully drawn, sympathetic characters you root for — a big accomplishment when they have to compete for audience attention with a sex monster. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJul 14, 2017
Each brief glimpse of the creature’s fleshy, slithering mass imbues the character drama with an aching sexual desire and, as the violent potential of the entity becomes clear, a mounting sense of dread. Read full review
83
IndieWireMichael NordineJul 20, 2017
This is the kind of experience that might tell you more about yourself as both a viewer and a person than you’re comfortable knowing; it’s also the most alluringly strange movie of the year so far. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 17, 2016
Rather than use his trademark raw style to expose and eviscerate social injustice, here Escalante puts it in service of a kind of cautionary fable about both the healing power of sex and the harming power of sexual hypocrisy, and he uses a tentacled alien to do it. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 24, 2017
This film is a very sly, subversive and disturbing black tragicomedy about a universal secret addiction. Read full review
80
CineVueMartyn ConterioAug 24, 2017
Escalante is a master filmmaker when it comes to creating atmosphere. Read full review
80
Total FilmTim ColemanAug 15, 2017
Director Amat Escalante channels Cronenbergian carnality and Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, while Simone Bucio and Ruth Ramos deliver stunning performances. Beware: this is explicit stuff. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJul 27, 2017
Escalante draws remarkable performances out of his cast of mostly newcomers in this film about the consequences of pleasure and the many meanings of flesh; where animal intelligence fills the void left by emotional disconnect. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 17, 2016
The Untamed is an examination of the strange otherworldly nature of desire, the way sex is often out of joint with our desires and expectations, even with our identities. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneySep 17, 2016
Even if The Untamed comes perilously close to sabotaging itself at times, this generic tightrope walk is a ferociously individual, highly intelligent piece and a superb, very affecting cast ensure that the human factor remains dominant, however creepily inhuman things may become at times. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleDanielle WhiteJul 26, 2017
In a similar fashion, the film’s music score is both high-strung and ominous – at times ringing like the aftermath of a shotgun blast and at others slow and dark like a body being dragged across a floor. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 20, 2017
Mr. Escalante is an exceptionally deft and subtle realist, and you sometimes feel, in “Heli” and even more so in The Untamed that he is drawn to extremity partly out of boredom with his own skill. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comNick AllenJul 21, 2017
It’s a low-key trippy sci-fi movie about booty calls with an unwieldy space squid, but I wish I could say it was much more than that. Read full review
60
The GuardianAndrew PulverSep 17, 2016
In all honesty The Untamed doesn’t seem to go anywhere special. But connoisseurs of oddness may cherish it. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijSep 17, 2016
Escalante struggles to illuminate how sex and violence are connected and what this, in turn, means for more specialized types of aggressiveness and oppression, such as misogyny and homophobia. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 17, 2016
This is a fascinating and outrageous next step for Escalante, with a strong central concept and some oozily plausible special effects. It’s just a pity that its human side doesn’t measure up to its inhuman one. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 17, 2016
While shot through with pointed jabs at chauvinism and mainstream homophobia in Mexican society, The Untamed never quite exceeds the sum of its intriguingly opposed parts. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarlos Valladares Aug 2, 2017
The unsure approach to rich material (based on a story about a newspaper’s homophobic coverage of a drowned man) mixes the sexy and grotesque — and cancels each other’s good parts out. Read full review
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