The Squad (El Páramo)

Dir: Jaime Osorio Marquez

2011

**

Jaime Osorio Marquez's 2011 film El Páramo (The Squad) is classed as a psychological thriller. The definition of a psychological thriller is a story that emphasizes the abnormal psychological states of its characters who may, or may not, show signs of a dissolving sense of reality, moral ambiguity, a complex and tortured, sometimes possessive persona that effects other characters. The film has none of that. The Squad is 100 minutes of senseless running about in the dark. The premise is that a mountain-top outpost in the middle of the Colombian countryside has gone quiet, a takeover by guerrilla solders is expected and an anti-guerrilla commando unit is sent in to investigate. The solders approach the base with cation until a rouge solder seems to lose it and runs off ahead, jeopardizing the safety of one of his colleagues who ends up getting his leg blown off by a land mine. We then learn that the solder was keen to investigate as his brother was stationed there. The rest of the film is a lot of walking about in the dark and overcooked scary music but there really isn't anything remotely frightening about it or even intriguing for that matter.  It dips its big toe into a bit of South American mythology but doesn't really take advantage of it. They find a woman tied up and their guide, a knowledgeable native who believes in superstition (nicknamed Indian), thinks she might be a Witch, rather than a guerrilla solder. Suddenly the solders, who are completely unconvincing as solders, panic and start shooting each other. There is no development, to descent into madness, just a laughable and rather immediate change of temperament. None of the characters work and none of them are memorable apart from their names (the timid one is 'Ponce', the black one is 'Negro' etc.). You don't care about them because you have absolutely no emotional investment in them, so you really don't care what happens to them and this is where most horror films fail. The last scene is a cheap shot, one that has worked for many a horror franchise but not here, here it lands on its face. The first 10 minutes was strong, there were some nice shots early on in the film but by and large I felt I had wasted 100 minutes of viewing time.