This Spanish Horror Flick With Elite Star Is One of the Most Paralyzing Movies of 2024
A terrifying film that hides an important social issue behind its metaphorical nature.
The Wailing is the debut feature of Spanish director Pedro Martín-Calero. The director co-wrote the script with Isabel Peña, who was previously responsible for the plot of the 2022 horror thriller The Beasts.
The film won the Silver Shell in San Sebastian, but you may have heard of its release in connection with the cinephile website Letterboxd: according to the service, the film has entered the top horror films of 2024.
What Is The Wailing About?
Madrid, 2022. Student Andrea (Ester Expósito) misses her boyfriend Pau, who is now in Sydney. At the same time, the girl learns that she is adopted: her biological mother, the Frenchwoman Marie, lived in Argentina, was convicted of murder and died just a month ago.
Andrea's only comfort in such a difficult moment is to communicate with her boyfriend. They exchange messages, photos and videos, and one day Pau notices the mysterious figure of an old man in the background. Marie once saw the same man.
The Wailing Has a Terrifying Villain
The appearance of a terrifying stranger, first on the phone screen and then in the video footage, is a surefire way to keep viewers glued to their seats until the credits roll.
Who or what is this – a family curse, an otherworldly force, a tricky metaphor? Before answering the question, it is worth analyzing, what unites Andrea and Marie beyond their DNA?
The Wailing Touches on One of the Pressing Social Issues of Our Time
The answer is obvious: both women are disbelieved by those around them. Pedro Martín-Calero and Isabel Peña take a pressing social issue – the lack of trust in victims of violence – and weave it into the fabric of a horror film.
The Wailing consists of a premonition of an approaching nightmare: the movie avoids directness, but at some point the audience begins to understand the fear and desperation of the women, who feel that an unknown person is following them, but society ignores their experiences.
The authors set the tone from the first frame: at the beginning, the viewer sees something attacking Marie in a nightclub, an incident that can be seen both as a manifestation of mysticism and as the personification of a permanent threat in everyday life.
The Wailing Is a Great Metaphor That Is Easy to Understand
It is no coincidence that the movie is called The Wailing: at certain moments, Andrea and Marie begin to hear women screaming. The screams deafen them and cause absolute horror in the viewers.
This is exactly what Pedro Martín-Calero's film is about – the piercing wailing of victims calling for help and drawing attention to the chain of violence and suffering.