Following an impressive festival run, Spanish director F. Javier Gutierrez’s chilling film The Wait (aka La Espera) has found a home in North America with Film Movement.
This folk horror thriller features a stellar cast, including Victor Clavijo (Before the Fall), Ruth Diaz, Manuel Moron, and Pedro Casablanc (Strange Way of Life).
The Wait follows Eladio (Clavijo), a groundskeeper on a powerful landowner’s estate in the Andalusian countryside. A fateful decision involving a bribe from a hunter unravels Eladio’s life, plunging him into a spiral of guilt, hatred, and a thirst for revenge.
The film is from Gutierrez’s Unfiled Films, Nostromo Pictures (“Penny Dreadful”), and Spal Films ( Gutierrez’s previous film Before the Fall).
The film premiered at Fantastic Fest and garnered accolades at festivals worldwide, including Sitges, Shanghai, Vancouver, and Oldenburg. It won over critics, with HorrorFuel’s Joseph Perry calling it “gripping” and “directed superbly” in his festival review.
Critics have lauded the film’s intensity. The Wait has been described as “powerful and devastating” (Fotogramas), taking viewers “on a macabre descent into hell” (Screen Zealots) and offering a “terrifying vision of loss” (Starburst).
Director F. Javier Gutierrez is no stranger to the genre. He’s brought you films like Before the Fall and 2017’s Rings. He also served as a producer for the film Demonic, which saw a police officer and a psychologist investigate the deaths of five people who were killed while trying to summon ghosts. You can watch it now on Prime Video and Tubi.
Film Movement targets an autumn release for The Wait across digital and cable platforms.