Hurricane Season Review: Based on Fernanda Melchor’s Mexican novel Temporada de Huracanes, the dark Spanish Netflix film has been directed by Elisa Miller. With a runtime of 99 minutes, it stars Edgar Trevino, Andres Cordaz, Kat Rigoni, Paloma Alvamar, Guss Morales, Ernesto Melendez and others.
Releasing on the streamer on November 1, 2023, the movie follows a non-linear narrative that starts unfolding with the announcement of the “Witch”‘s murder. Set in a damned and impoverished Mexican town, the story then finds everyone guilty in one way or another.
Temporada de Huracanes Review Contains No Spoilers
Hurricane Season Review
The movie begins with a warning reminding us that some events relayed through the film are based on real life. Yet the story adopts the setting of a fictional town and imaginary characters to settle into a terrifying and stifling picture that is clearly a reality for many. Although the film centres around its apparent main character, the “Witch”, it merely uses her as a ruse to latch on to the personal and subjective narratives of several other characters and a town overridden with secrets hidden underneath.
Each character introduced to us through the initial investigation for the murder is in hopes of finding an escape – some looking for an emotional breakthrough. In contrast, others want to rid themselves of their sordid surroundings in hopes of upward mobility. What becomes even more apparent over time is that, especially with the Witch’s murder at the onset of the film, her presence is possibly the least dangerous intervention in the lot. Despite the mentions of the said “supernatural” entity, reality and lived experiences derived from poverty, exploitation, and violence appear to be more horrifying and sinister in the end.
The visuals produced throughout the film are such that you may want to look away from them, but you can’t because the stark latent sense of horror that overrides the characters’ lives is terrifyingly and accurately portrayed in the most natural and sordid ways possible. The production design, set locations and the actors’ performances all come together to put up a disturbing picture, which is exactly what the novel also sought to achieve.
Fernanda Melchor’s book has been labelled a ruthless read, especially with her convoluting the plot by including unreliable narrators who also deliver non-linear narratives. The movie may not necessarily come as close to portraying those depths of dirtiness, but it comes very close to depicting those things aptly, along with the vehemently vulgar jargon powered by a flawed machismo understanding. It openly illustrates the direct repercussions of pregnancies among teenagers, homophobia, abusive mothers at the side and drug dealing happening now and then.
The focus is sharply on the visual gore and bloody scenarios that shake you from within – Norma’s story of pregnancy is especially discomfiting. Yet, you keep watching the events unfold, with, of course, some moments being so unsettling that you have to turn your head away but, again, come back to find out more. All of it, when put together, affirms how stifling living conditions and squalor have resulted in these deadly consequences following a chain reaction of unfitting happenings.
The director’s camera looks at the subjects living and suffering in their lives without looking at them as objects that need to be preached or judged. Their lives rather become a heavy reminder of what horrors await those for whom social mobility is inaccessible.
The Witch, too, counts as a character at the periphery of society, having subverted all rules set by societal norms. Ultimately, her “transgression” costs her in the most brutal way possible in addition to society countlessly looking at her as a punching bag. All means of corruption are blamed on her name in this story, which is interlinked to the lives of several characters.
When the film first commences its sordid and horror-driven actions, it seems the film plans to lure her out as the primary focus of a plot fuelled by magic realism. However, it ultimately pans out into a picture of realism covered in squalid blood, which is also terrifyingly portrayed through the visible presence of blood and violence.
Hurricane Season Netflix Film: Final Thoughts
The Temporada de Huracanes adaptation is divided into fragments combined with the layered narratives of each character’s story. On the surface, the film unfolds as a murder mystery, and by the end of it, we also discover the murderers at play, but it never appeases us to know the answer because their individual lives and hurtful backstories, many a time centred on misogynism, also take shape in front of us piece-by-piece. Through this, many complex topics like sexual exploitation, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, domestic violence, and more.
The continuous and long-running scenes and camerawork do justice to Melchor’s novel, which is also defined by the lack of periods. Moreover, the cinematography also grabs us by the neck and terrifies us by transporting us to the deadly reality of the characters standing. Hurricane Season is a complex watch that is not easy on the mind, which can also reel out confusion due to the multiplicity of narratives. However, the same layered storytelling is what fills you with fear.
Hurricane Season movie is now streaming on Netflix.