Las Antropófagas (2019)

Ecuador is not a country that registers prominently on most people's mental map of world cinema. Its film industry, while active, operates on limited resources and without the international distribution networks that give neighbouring Colombia or Argentina their relative visibility. Las Antropófagas (the title translates roughly as "The Cannibal Women") arrives from 2019 and runs at a trim 89 minutes, the kind of runtime that suggests its makers were at least aware of not overstaying their welcome. The premise follows the arrival of mysterious strangers to an isolated community, after which a series of grim events unfolds and the locals, along with local authorities, find themselves drawn into something considerably darker than they had bargained for. It is, on paper at least, a familiar horror set-up: outsiders, a remote setting, a terrible secret. The genre has produced some genuinely unsettling work in Latin American cinema over the years, so there is no reason in principle why Ecuador cannot contribute something worthwhile to it.

The film was produced by JB Comunicación Audiovisual and directed by Jorge Bastidas Zea, whose name is not widely known outside Ecuadorian film circles. Without a broader body of work to draw on here, it is difficult to place this feature in the context of a developing career, though the production company name suggests a close, possibly self-contained operation. The cast is not widely documented in available records, which is itself a fair indication of the film's profile. Low-budget horror from outside the established genre markets can occasionally punch well above its weight, as viewers of similarly regional productions will know, but the conditions have to be right: a focused script, committed performances, and some degree of formal control over atmosphere and pacing. Whether those conditions were met here is very much the question. For a sense of what horror can do when it has confidence and a clear vision, my reviews of Scream (1996) and Tiger Stripes, both horror films I have covered previously, offer useful points of comparison. This film comes to the blog as part of the A-Z World Movie Tour, the ongoing project to watch a film from every country in the world, which has already thrown up its fair share of surprises, pleasant and otherwise, from a documentary from 2017 to the polished but unremarkable Luigi.

A-Z World Movie Tour Ecuador Honestly by far one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Terrible in every single aspect including the story which made absolutely no sense. I've made a complete lack of judgement watching this shit

I have sat through some rough patches on this world tour, and there is a certain grim comedy in the fact that Ecuador, a country I was genuinely curious to explore through its cinema, delivered something quite this punishing. When a horror film fails to generate tension, atmosphere or even basic narrative coherence, there is very little left to hold on to, and 89 minutes can feel considerably longer than it has any right to. I will keep going with the tour, because that is the whole point, and occasionally a film from an unexpected corner of the world genuinely surprises you. This was not that occasion. Some countries will get a better representative in time. Ecuador deserves one.

Rating: ½  | Year: 2019  | Watched: 2025-06-12

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