Undergods (2020)
Chino Moya's new film Undergods which is streaming as part of the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival immediately grabs the audience's attention with tense and unnerving set-ups such as a couple allowing a man to stay with them for a weekend after he claims he was locked out of his apartment. With beautiful shots of the cold and dark city in the middle of winter, the atmosphere right away is claustrophobic and chilling. Reveals are made and it feels like the story is starting to ramp up only to out of nowhere end the story and transfer to another narrative carrying a similarly impressive tone but feels off and jarring due to the lack of a true resolution with the previous story. In this explanation of the layout of the film, both the best and worst of Undergods is seen. It is a film that constantly flexes its ability to create captivating stories and characters only to refuse to truly allow them to play out leading an impressive showcase of a film that stands out as frustrating and unrewarding as a viewing experience.
Almost reminiscent of Black Mirror yet in a much more grounded sense, one of the most impressive aspects of Undergods is the causal tension and unnerving energy found within the film. Even though the film and its stories are set in a real world, the direction given by Chino Moya is masterful at creating a slight appearance of uncanniness in the situations and characters that make it clear that something is off long before the plot actually shows its cards as far as what is wrong. Through subtlety from the performances and small hints in the screenplay also coming from Chino Moya, the film never feels too obvious with what is happening and where it is going allowing the audience to engage with it and stay on the edge of their seats throughout the entire running time. Once the glass drops and the plot finally makes a grand reveal, the film lives up to the hype providing shocking reveals that are satisfying and exciting.
The sad truth is that Undergods never goes beyond this reveal to give a true payoff. It is a film that constantly transitions from a huge moment to a quiet start with every change in focus feeling abrupt and disappointing. The audience wants to see what is next for the previous story and immediately enter a new story distracted and unfocused. It seems obvious that this is a collection of shorts that would work best as a full on miniseries that would allow each story to have time to conclude and fully explore its plot without forcing each story to be blown up to feature length. Where this is easier said than done considering the production costs and resources needed to create a miniseries, this format does not do justice for these plots and overall as mentioned, the viewing experience feels frustrating because of this.
Undergods is a film that despite its strengths overall feels difficult to recommend. It is a film that has so much good in it, but since it drops the ball when it comes to the overall payoff, it almost feels better to not become engaged in the positive elements only to be disappointing by the endings and just avoid the experience overall. Undergods is far from the worst of the year and if the stories and style sound engaging there is far worse you could spend your time watching, but at the end of the day the film fails to live up to its own talents and really struggles to be must watch in really any way
Undergods is a film that despite its strengths overall feels difficult to recommend. It is a film that has so much good in it, but since it drops the ball when it comes to the overall payoff, it almost feels better to not become engaged in the positive elements only to be disappointing by the endings and just avoid the experience overall. Undergods is far from the worst of the year and if the stories and style sound engaging there is far worse you could spend your time watching, but at the end of the day the film fails to live up to its own talents and really struggles to be must watch in really any way