Review of The Squad

The Squad (2011)
6/10
Colombia/Argentina/Spain co-production about a group of soldiers who experience something supernatural at a military base set on top of a mountain.
27 August 2014
A special high mountain command (stars : Juan David Restrepo, Mateo Stevel, Andrés Castañeda, Daniela Catz, and Nelson Camayo, among others) of nine is sent to a military base in a desolate high-plains moor of Colombia , but all contact with the military base high in the desolate wastelands of Colombia has been lost . Contact was lost several days ago and was believed to be target of a guerrilla attack . Upon arrival, the only person found inside the base results to be a woman , as the men discover a shocking scene of carnage, and only one survivor , a peasant who is heavily chained . Gradually , the team is disturbingly hooked by isolation and the impossibility to escape , and creating them doubts about the true nature of that strange woman . They start to question the identity of their enemy, and the true nature of the strange , silent woman . Is she a terrorist ? A victim? Or something more sinister? Something supernatural… Paranoia takes root . Prisoners of fear and the terrible secret they share , and the events go wrong .

This stirring as well as violent film has breathless , brutal scenes , a gut punch of an action film , it creates a nice amount of tension and fright . It begins when authorities – believing a military base to have fallen to a terrorist attack – send a nine-man squad to investigate ; as a special unit of combat taking on the challenges of dealing with pressure themselves , isolating , fright and fighting at an unnamed war . This is a thrilling picture with terror elements in which a squad is submitted to strange horrors and impossibility of escape that undermine the integrity and sanity of the soldiers, causing them to lose the certainties about the identify of the enemy . It's an interesting movie , from the beginning until the end the frightening and scary action is unstoppable . It's a thought-provoking and clever studio of an Elite Squad , about some experienced soldiers, and unflinching remark at the lack of communication , as a group inability to communicate with the outside world originating upsetting feelings , hatred and confrontation . The film turns out to be a crossover from various flicks , as it takes parts here and there of The Bunker by Rob Green , Deathwatch by Michael J. Basset , The Guard Post , among others . The flick has an eerie atmosphere , it is in gloomy color , enhanced by the mud of trenches and with lights and shades that originates a ghostly setting . Set design is alright , the movie is enough atmospheric , the dark sludge , the dirtiness and filthiness with the muddy trenches are very well designed .

Jaime Osorio Marquez makes his acceptable writing and directing debut with this tale of an elite team of soldiers , though overusing the Steadicam . American remake rights to The Squad (El Paramo) have already been snatched up by a Hollywood producer. Colombia Reports says Scott Lastaiti (his previous credits include executive producing Turistas , Love in the Time of Cholera and Stan Helsing) saw the film, thought it was "chilling," and ultimately purchased the rights.
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