In October 1972 , a plane hire by an amateur Uruguayan rugby team rifle down in the mickle south of Chile . Some of the passengers died in the crash , others in the weeks that follow — give in to their injuries or the coldness or starvation . Those who live to be incredibly rescue did so because they made the unspeakable but necessary option to run through the dead . Is what happened to them a catastrophe or a miracle , asks the opening voice - over ofSociety of the Snow . The tangible question raised by thisNetflixsurvival drama is : Should n’t a dependable taradiddle of living , death , and cannibalism be a small more gripping ?
This is actually the second film to depict the so - called Andes flight disaster . Released in 1993,Alivereshaped a British bestseller about the incident into a Hollywood ode to the human spirit , with American actors deliver dialogue in English and a hokey sentimentalism at betting odds with the dispirited subject matter . ( Ickier than scenes of the survivor munching on chunks of their friends and folk was the general endeavour to redact the events in inspirational term . ) Directed by J.A. Bayona and adapted from a different nonfiction book by Uruguayan journalist Pablo Vierci , Society of the Snowaims for a small more verisimilitude : The characters verbalise Spanish , the script reportedly sticks closer to the fact , and there ’s less incongruous comic relievo .
After a brief prologue heavy on gaudy foreshadowing ( “ This may be the last trip we take together , you know ? ” one guy secern a soon - to - be - frozen - solid friend),Society of the Snowhits its mellow point , literally and figuratively , with an vivid depiction of the collapse . Even more powerfully precise than the anatomic and structural damage — the crunch of pearl and metal — is the emotional arc of the sequence , as attempts to joke through other mark of Sturm und Drang give path to a wave of cap panic and existential terror . It ’s one of the more harrowing midair nightmares the movies have offered in a moment .
Society of the Snowtracks the ensue trial by ordeal by days and casualties , like investigators patch together an ethereal catastrophe from the sinister box recover from the wreckage . “ This is a place where life story is impossible , ” intones nominal protagonist and storyteller Numa ( Enzo Vogrincic Roldán ) as he and the other survivors huddle near in the downed aircraft , patch periodical reconnoitering missions , and readjust their expectation when it becomes percipient that the hunt political party wo n’t see them from the air until the nose candy melts months subsequently . With the elision of an eccentric choice affect the aforementioned story , the motion picture clings to a dreary realism as tightly as its characters cleave to life . Eventually , the inevitable thing of what to exhaust arises , and the ensuing conversation probably touches upon a range of dissent , moral and even effectual , before everyone accept that going full Donner Party is the only agency they ’ll see the spring .
On that grisly subject , Society of the Snowis less graphic thanAlive . This is not to say that Bayona , who made a name for himself with the supernatural thrillerThe Orphanage , does n’t lean into the repulsion , ready his tv camera an minacious distance away as one starve mortal watches his teammates circle and carve . Later , the director make happy in the claustrophobia of an avalanche that buries everyone in darkness . The central threat of the elements clashes with the power of perseverance — a cocktail that recalls Bayona ’s loud calamity weepieThe inconceivable , which grossly asked us to feel uplifted by the survival of British tourists while hundreds of one thousand of others died in the tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia . Here , at least , survivor ’s guilt hangs over the triumphant upshot , a “ well-chosen ending ” deliver less so .
Still , this is a filmmaker with an affinity for torture . He loves bust - streaked grimace in closing curtain - up . So much ofSociety of the Snowis just that : a wilderness crucible fictionalise through grimace and stares , with particular attention to the concaving of lineament hollow out by malnourishment . Is there an wholeness to how interchangeable the character become , a blur of emaciated maleness ? Maybe someone so tug to strong-arm and psychological demarcation would exuviate personality as speedily as pounds , reduced only to appetite and ask . But one does almost begin to miss the cheesier character beats ofAlive , if only for how they differentiated the lean , thinning throng . All we get here is the demarcation of wordless flashbacks to skillful time , each death set off a quick in - memoriam clip of the deceased at the airport , oblivious to the arctic hell they ’re about to record .
Slathered in the dingy finish that is promptly becoming a kind of Netflix international business firm manner ( see also : last year’sAll Quiet on the Western Front),Society of the Snowlooks arty and grave accent . But in tolerant strokes , we ’re not so far from the Hollywood variant . In fact , this new infotainment often plays like a gritty remaking ofAlive , simply colour in its sentimentalism in a trendier shade of gray . Arguably , the movie suffer from the same trouble as its precursor : After the gravid dietetic conclusion is made , there ’s no more conflict between these zippo — and still not much drama in see them shiver and look for rescue .
