Director JA Bayona’s horror sensibilities often get the better of him, regardless of whether he’s making a sombre drama or one of the most expensive films in history. Fresh off the success of his Spanish-language thriller The Orphanage, Bayona couldn’t help but ramp up the scares in The Impossible, the weepy that he directed about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Nor could he resist inserting a scene straight out of gothic horror in the otherwise forgettable Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. But neither killer waves nor giant dinosaurs are scarier than the true story that he has decided to dramatise in his latest film, Spain’s official entry to this year’s Oscars, Society of the Snow.
Released on Netflix as a part of the streamer’s leaner-than-usual awards season slate, the epic survival drama revisits the famous 1972 Andes flight disaster, which left around two dozen Uruguayans — mostly young men — stranded at the top of a snow-clad mountain. Rescue efforts were called off after a week or so, after search planes flew over the survivors more than once, but cruelly failed to spot them because the wreckage had blended in with the snow.
A still from Society of the Snow. (Photo: Netflix)
The disaster — some describe it as a miracle — was previously portrayed in the 1993 Hollywood film Alive, in which Ethan Hawke played the lead role of survivor Nando Parrado. In Society of the Snow, Bayona has made the smart choice to cast culturally appropriate actors for its many speaking roles, immediately coating the movie with a layer of authenticity that goes a long way in selling the human drama underneath the visual magnificence. In addition to the fresh-faced cast of newcomers, he’s working with an entirely new team of technicians here; it’s his first collaboration, for instance, with cinematographer Pedro Luque, perhaps the film’s biggest star.
Luque alternates between sweeping widescreen vistas that have the power to offer momentary respite amid all the suffering, and Chivo Lubezki-esque close-ups that underline the claustrophobia. Of course, a lot of this film would’ve been shot against a green screen, or perhaps one of those LED backdrops that have become so popular these days, but the effects are so seamless — barring, of course, a few shots of the actual crash — that you’re left with no choice but to sit back and wonder how they got away with it.
The crash sequence also gives Bayona an excuse to double down on the gore. Bones crunch, skulls crack, flesh is skewered as a group of 45 is reduced to 30 in an instant. The remaining survivors huddle up in the wrecked fuselage as they’re pulverised by sub-zero temperatures. Many don’t make it through the first night. But even if you haven’t watched Alive, or one of the many documentaries that have been made about the disaster, you’ve probably heard about how these men survived for over two months in near-impossible conditions. After essentially a week, they began eating the corpses of their friends and relatives.
For all his horror bonafides, however, Bayona has the good sense to never allow Society of the Snow to turn into an exploitation picture. A schlockier filmmaker wouldn’t have had the decency. But as it stands, Society of the Snow is an odd combination of heart-pounding thrills and earnest melodrama. It’s harrowing, and when it needs to be, also rather hopeful. Bayona doesn’t brush the cannibalism under the carpet, of course, but he doesn’t exactly examine the ethics of it either. The movie argues that time and circumstances can make even the most unpardonable acts acceptable.
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A still from Society of the Snow. (Photo: Netflix)
And in a sense, this functions as a meta commentary on our relationship with violence and horror in general, both on screen and in real life. While you might justifiable retch the first time one of the survivors hacks at a human body — Bayona’s direction is undeniably sensitive in these moments — subsequent glimpses of, let’s call it meat consumption, are almost matter-of-fact. The shock is short-lived. Desensitisation is in our DNA. In the two-odd months that the survivors spend in isolation, their perspective on life and death changes about as rapidly as their decaying bodies. What was viewed as a hopeless situation on day one seems like paradise on day 17.
Along the way, Bayona stages a handful of set-pieces that are invariably punctuated by more loss of life. But while the visuals remain impeccable and the makeup flawless, the writing can’t help but feel a little lifeless. Bayona is clearly going for rousing drama — he uses Michael Giacchino’s original score like a drip-feed — but either because he’s unable to adequately flesh out, no pun intended, each member of the sprawling ensemble, or because his takeaway from this tragedy is fundamentally two-dimensional, the movie never quite transcends its genre origins. Society of the Snow falls short of being one of the best films of the year; but it’s an uncommonly well-made survival thriller.
Society of the Snow Director – JA Bayona Cast – Agustín Pardella, Enzo Vogrincic Roldán, Matías Recalt, Tomas Wolf, Esteban Kukuriczka Rating – 3.5/5
Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police.
You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at rohan.naahar@indianexpress.com. He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read More
A still from Society of the Snow. (Photo: Netflix)
A still from Society of the Snow. (Photo: Netflix)
A still from Society of the Snow. (Photo: Netflix)