Demons, monsters and mutation can be scary, but they don’t match the fear of being penniless in a society that values people based on their wealth. “Most Beautiful Island” explores this all too real nightmare while remaining a deceptive and clever horror film.
Ana Asensio stars and directs this movie based on her own experiences as an undocumented immigrant living in New York City. She plays protagonist Luciana, a woman who is in such desperate need for money that she’s willing to take any job. These humiliating jobs include babysitting a pair of unbelievably bratty children, dressing up as a chicken to promote a restaurant and entertaining guests at an eerie and mysterious party.
The last of these jobs is where the movie gets really creepy, but to say more would ruin the tension experienced as one watches these scenes progress. “Most Beautiful Island” is deceptive because it initially appears to be a drama about a woman trying to get enough cash to pay rent, but ends up turning into a horror film. The stakes are simple and understandable: if Luciana doesn’t comply then she doesn’t have money. If she doesn’t have money, she loses her home.
While some of the dialogue is read in a distractingly flat manner, the first two acts of the film do a great job at making the viewer empathize for Luciana by establishing how being poor and undocumented limits her job opportunities and prevents her from having health insurance.
The best part of this movie is the third act at the aforementioned party. Most of the movie is shot in close-ups focused on either faces or the objects people use, limiting the information that the viewer receives and forcing one to adopt the character’s point-of-view. You end up focusing on the one specific thing happening on screen, leaving you more vulnerable to be scared by anything that appears suddenly. Withholding information makes watching this part of the film uncomfortable because you don’t know what’s coming; but you’re aware that it’s bad and happening soon. The framing makes the film more chilling to watch.
The cinematography is also remarkable for how it avoids objectifying the naked human body. Horror movies are frequently guilty of doing so (pretty much always to women) because of how they focus on exposed breasts or butts. This can be seen in the 2009 version of “Friday the 13th,” when killer Jason Voorhees pulls his knife out of a woman’s head. Her dead body rises out of the ocean as he does this, showing the viewer her breasts before the corpse sinks into the lake. This makes the scene and character appear to have only existed so the filmmakers could include that one shot. “Most Beautiful Island” avoids doing this by focusing on the character’s reaction to the situation rather than their nudity.
“Most Beautiful Island” can be streamed for free on Kanopy.