Quicksand (2023)

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: Quicksand (2023)
Genre: Thriller
Length: 1h 26min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Dawn’s Light, Elemental Stories, Sangre Films, Two Twenty Two Pictures, AMC+, Shudder
Director: Andres Beltran
Writer: Matt Pitts
Actors: Andrés Castañeda, Carolina Gaitan, Sebastian Eslava, Allan Hawco
 
Blurb from IMDb: Follows a married couple almost divorcing who become trapped in quicksand while hiking through a rainforest in Colombia. They will battle the elements of the jungle and must work together in order to survive.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
The trailer for Quicksand looked promising. It showed a lot of heart-pumping moments, but still made sure that audiences knew most of it took place in a single quicksand pit.
 
There was no way of knowing that the trailer used every single interesting moment.
 
Aside from what’s shown in the coming attractions, nothing else happens in Quicksand. That, alone, wouldn’t be a problem. With a strong script and even stronger actors, a movie with two people stuck in a single location can still be decent.
 

I’d like to use Malcolm & Marie (2021) as an example. That entire movie is about a couple having a single argument. There’s nothing else involved. There’s never anyone else on screen. Yet, the script by Sam Levinson (Euphoria, Deep Water, Assassination Nation) makes enough sense, while Zendaya (Euphoria, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Dune) and John David Washington (Tenet, Amsterdam, Ballers) embody their characters so thoroughly, that it’s impossible to look away. It’s the best example I can give of what can make a two-actor film work.
 
Unfortunately, Quicksand doesn’t have any of that. The actors don’t have enough chemistry to hold up the film on their own. Even if they did, the script is clunky and awkward. As a result, I could barely concentrate as I yawned through the film.
 
Quicksand let me down. It wasn’t worth the faith I put into it.
 
If you want to see for yourself, Quicksand will be available on Shudder this Friday, July 14.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score –5.4/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13
 
Movie Trailer: