What the Tide Dragged In (2025)

MOVIE 15 - 2025 Edition of 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from Slasher Summer for a quiet horror film like this one. Sometimes the dialogue ventured into exposition territory, but I could forgive it for the sake of having just the two actors, María Jesús Marcone and Luna Martínez, as sisters Clara and Martina, setting the stage with their childhood memories as they prepared to go to the remote beach where they were to spread their mother's ashes.

Besides the walk down memory lane, the cinematographic choices also bring us closer to the sisters; between the grainy film quality, the occasional shake, and the aspect ratio which makes it feel like we're watching home video - only compounded by what sounds like a recording of their mother during her illness, the still shots peppered in, and looking through Clara's eyes via the camera lens as she takes photos, we are there with them, and we are mourning with them.

Because they take time to let us get to know them, it matters to us when Martina is swept away by the water - the water which we've just heard their mother tell us is a portal and a threshold - and we see that something is not right with her when she comes back.

What the Tide Dragged In is an unsettling, beautiful exploration of family and grief and is another example of why Patricio Valladares has become one of the filmmakers I automatically add to my watchlist.