The movie starts out like it’s a cheesy exploitation horror movie, with very spoilt Americans in a foreign country who venture where they shouldn’t because of their lack of respect for other cultures and plain ignorance. Then, the movie pulls the rug out from right under us, and swings between cosmic horror, psychological horror and body horror very masterfully.

I’m a sucker for the dark comedy which comes from the moral rules that horror movies conjure up for their world, like 80s slasher movies almost always killing off characters who have sex or take drugs for example.

Here, the moral rules are so satisfyingly fun.

1. At the start, Amy nearly cheats on her boyfriend with the German tourist, Mathias before Stacy stops her. Later, the movie decides that death is the easier option and kills Mathias quite violently and gruesomely over a long time, while Amy has to outlive him and watch the man she almost fucked, have his body slowly be consumed to the bone by carnivorous vines, and be amputated with a knife while he screams for it to stop (Although Jeff who’s doing the slicing insists he feels no pain).

2. At the start, Eric begs Stacy for a blowjob but the movie plays it off casually and the audience is treated to Stacy stripping nude with her boobs in full view. Later, both the audience and Eric are ‘rewarded’ with the slow process of watching Amy having the plants writhe inside her body while they feast on it from the inside. This finally climaxes with Amy repeatedly slicing herself open with a small knife and peeling off her flesh to get rid of the plants. Only then does the movie let Eric die accidentally by Stacy’s hand, after it made him witness all that as punishment.

3. Jeff at the start and throughout, is shown to be too trusting and kind towards his girlfriend, Stacy, who the audience expects to die as repentance for her behaviour. But at the end, the movie says ‘to hell with moral retribution’ and he dies trying to save Stacy just as he has always figuratively done.

Also, the spoilt American tourists who think they are superior to the locals and wouldn’t even drink the water, are reduced to performing what are essentially sacrifices on top of a Mayan temple and smearing themselves with the blood of the deceased by the end of the movie. The Mayans that lived there also probably built the pyramid for the sole purpose of sacrifices that would appease the vines too, which I think is interesting.

The plant design, the way it moves and the way it mimics voices is so surprisingly well done and chilling, especially for a movie that seems, on the surface, like it is an exploitation-type movie at first. It reminds me a bit of Annihilation too. The source material is something that would be so easy to make an unintentionally cheesy Hollywood adaptation movie out of. The strong direction, story, and understanding and use of horror genres and set pieces elevates this whole thing and deserve praise. But, my gripe is that, to me, all the dialogues at the start before they went to the ruins felt a bit clunky. The prologue and epilogue also felt a bit unsatisfying but that’s probably to fit audiences’ tastes after test screenings.

I enjoyed watching this movie an hour ago and since then I rechecked the expiry date on a chocolate bar before eating it, for the off chance that it’s expired and something grows from inside my body after I consume it. Also suspiciously eyeing the potted plant beside me as I type this.