Netflix just debuted a new trailer for a chilling upcoming survival thriller that paints a haunting picture of what it takes to survive impossible odds. The brutally uncompromising Society of the Snow, which holds a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and will represent Spain in the 2024 Oscar's international feature film race, is already shaping up to be one of the most anticipated movies coming to streaming next year.
The latest from Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, The Orphanage), Society of the Snow is based on the harrowing true story of the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster. After a plane chartered to take a Uruguayan rugby team to Chile crashes in the heart of the Andes mountains, the surviving members are stranded in the freezing wilderness for months and must resort to extreme measures if they have any hope of surviving one of the most hostile and inaccessible environments on the planet.
What makes director Bayona’s film stand out, even among real-life-inspired survival thrillers, is the lengths it goes to put the viewers in the frostbitten shoes of the survivors. Pan’s Labyrinth’s Oscar-winning special effects make-up artists David Martí and Montse Ribé craft agonizingly realistic injuries that are not for the faint of heart.
The film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Pablo Vierci, a Uruguayan journalist and screenwriter, and the filmmakers and actors had extensive contact with the survivors and families of the victims to do their stories justice.
As you can see in the trailer below, the icy conditions are so realistic it's enough to make you shiver along with the poor young men.
When can I stream Society of the Snow?
Society of the Snow will see a limited release in movie theaters in December before coming to Netflix on January 4, 2024.
Is Society of the Snow worth streaming?
Critics are already raving about Society of the Snow, which currently holds a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Spanish film and TV website Espinof called it one of the best movies in the history of disaster cinema.
Time Out said that while "the depiction of the crash will put you off air travel forever," the film as a whole is haunting but essential viewing for cinephiles: "Shot at altitude in the icy Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain, this gripping, emotional retelling of the Andes flight disaster plonks you right in the middle of that frostbitten hell and leaves you feeling not just for its victims, but a little for the cast of young Uruguayan and Argentinian actors and crew who re-create it so effectively here. You hope they had thermals on."
If you're familiar with the real-life tragedy, you probably already know about the desperate measures the survivors resort to when faced with the very real possibility of starving to death in a frozen hellscape. If not, spoiler alert: the answer is cannibalism.
But while Society of the Snow doesn't shy away from depicting the truly traumatic experiences the group had to endure, it doesn't glorify them either. Instead, the film devotes a significant portion of screen time to the lasting psychological toll that even considering resorting to consuming human flesh to survive, let alone going through with it, can have on a person.
Do you stand by your morals and face the agonizingly slow death of starvation? Or condemn yourself to a life forever haunted by your actions? How do the young men square such an impossible situation with their religious beliefs? These are all questions Bayona tackles with the weight they deserve, critics say.
From the impeccable performances from the cast of young Uruguayan and Argentinian actors to the masterful cinematography and soundtrack, Society of the Snow seems poised to be the kind of movie that sticks with viewers long after the credits roll.
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