An invisible entity is awoken by young people over a period of decades.
Written by Isabel Peña and Pedro Martín-Calero with the latter also directing. The film here has a story that feels familiar, one that many will assume is close to It Follows, and in a way, it does have a lot in common with it, but it’s its own entity and one that only somewhat works. The characters here might be the main issue has none of them connected for this viewer, something was missing to make them feel more real, more human which may be coming from the writing, the direction, or the acting, or perhaps a mix of all at which point, the blame is usually on the director. Here, these characters feel more inconsequential thank victims one through seven in a typical slasher film while not being a slasher film. There is something here in the story, but by the halfway point, it feels muddled and like no one really knew how deep they wanted to get in the lore or how to resolve it. Something is massively missing, and it makes the whole film like something that one watches because they have to, not because they are involved, interested, and into it.
The cast here is doing what they can basically. It’s hard to pinpoint where the issue is with the characters, so it’s more difficult to pinpoint who did the best with their parts. The charisma seems a bit missing too, like these are not characters or performances that connected. Yes, they were ok performances, but one would hope for more. Granted, for those who connect well with the material, they may have a better experience here. For this viewer, the better performances were in the last third of the film (not including the epilogue) and these parts look more interesting in the process. That almost-last section is the strongest part of the film, with more emotions, more connection, and better performances to go with it.
One of the high points of the film is its cinematography by Constanza Sandoval. The work by Sandoval here is lovely at times, dark and creepy at others, and adapts to what the story needs no matter what while giving the viewer something properly lit and properly framed to look at. The work shows talent and interest in presenting a film well no matter the story. This is a bit broken early on with all the texting between the lead of that segment and her long-distance boyfriends showing up on screen and taking the majority of it. While the communication device is interesting, it soon becomes something one wishes would go away so that the images on screen can be better seen and appreciated.
The Wailing is one of those films that needs to connect to make an impact and it just didn’t work storywise for this viewer so no matter how pretty and inspiring some of the images on screen were, but the end of the first segment, there was no care left for the characters and what happened to them, so the shocking (or rather may be shocking to some) elements do not land right. A bit of a tighter script, some more decisive direction, and more pinpointed performances would have made a world of difference here. As it is, the film is middle of the road at best.
Fantasia 2025 runs from July 16th to August 3rd 2025