The Untamed (2017) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

The film takes place on a remote farm in the Mexican countryside, with the barn serving as a central location. This isolated rural setting creates a stark contrast between quiet, traditional farm life and the shocking events that unfold, emphasizing the characters' moral isolation and the story's sense of removed, almost timeless tragedy.

• mexican countryside
• rural farm
• barn setting
• remote location

The film is set in present-day rural Mexico, unfolding in contemporary times rather than a specific historical era. This modern setting grounds the story in recognizable reality while allowing the narrative to explore primal human desires and hidden violence that transcend any particular time period.

• present day
• rural mexico
• contemporary setting
• modern era

Desire is the driving force behind the characters' decisions throughout the film. Alejandra's unfulfilled longing, Ángel's coercive tendencies, and Veronica's fixation on the alien creature all lead to dangerous choices. The film illustrates how repressed desire can erupt into violence, showing the devastating consequences when private longings remain suppressed in a closeted, conservative environment.

• desire
• sexual frustration
• repression
• obsession
• dangerous choices

The barn serves as the film's most important location where the alien creature is kept by the elderly couple. It becomes a space of forbidden encounters and sexual taboos, where both Veronica and later other characters engage with the non-human entity. The barn represents a threshold between the ordinary rural world and something otherworldly and dangerous, blurring boundaries between fantasy and harm.

• barn
• alien creature
• elderly couple
• forbidden encounters
• threshold

Veronica is a young woman who becomes obsessed with a tentacled alien creature from a crashed meteor. She forms a dangerous sexual bond with the unknown entity, seeking fulfillment through this taboo relationship. Her fixation on the alien drives one of the film's two main storylines and represents the extreme expression of desire explored in the narrative.

• veronica
• alien creature
• tentacled
• obsession
• taboo relationship

Alejandra is a young mother of two who is deeply unhappy in her marriage to a closeted husband. Her primary motivation is sexual frustration and the search for fulfillment in a repressive environment. This leads her to seek unconventional outlets, ultimately becoming entangled in the dangerous events surrounding the alien creature and the community's growing turmoil.

• alejandra
• mother
• sexual frustration
• unhappy marriage
• repression

Ángel is Alejandra's husband who publicly ridicules others while secretly pursuing an affair with nurse Fabián. His defining traits are a volatile temper and willingness to resort to violence. His closeted identity and aggressive personality drive much of the plot's interpersonal conflict, making him a central source of the film's tension and eventual tragedy.

• angel
• husband
• closeted
• affair
• violent temper
• abuse

The film probes taboos surrounding fidelity, consent, and the boundaries of love by mixing human sexuality with a non-human entity. Through relationships that form around the alien creature, the narrative pushes conventional morality to its edge, blurring lines between fantasy and harm. The result is a morally ambiguous story that questions societal norms around sexuality and desire.

• taboo
• fidelity
• consent
• boundaries of love
• morality
• sexual norms

The film shows how interpersonal conflict escalates into brutal acts with lasting repercussions. Infidelity, aggression, and the alien's unpredictability culminate in deaths and a devastating final act. The rural setting amplifies this theme, illustrating how repressed desire and hidden conflicts can devastate families and entire communities when they finally surface.

• violence
• consequences
• death
• escalation
• community devastation

The narrative is structured around two distinct but thematically linked threads: the human drama involving Alejandra, Ángel, and Fabián, and the alien encounter involving Veronica and the creature in the barn. Both storylines explore themes of desire, taboo, and destructive relationships, converging with tragic results that underscore the film's unified thematic vision.

• two storylines
• human drama
• alien encounter
• converging narratives
• thematic links

The film maintains a consistently bleak tone with no redeeming hope or positive resolution. Its emotional weight is heavy, driven by themes of sexual repression, loneliness, violence, and fatal obsession. The pacing is slow and deliberate, focusing on atmosphere and character frustration. With zero humor and maximum sadness scores, the film presents an unambiguously grim portrait of its characters' fates.

• bleak tone
• emotional weight
• depression
• oppressive atmosphere
• grim outcome

Fabián is a nurse who becomes entangled in a secret affair with Ángel. His relationship with both Ángel and presumably other partners unravels as the story progresses. He becomes a direct target of violence due to the complicated love triangle, ultimately ending up in a coma after a brutal assault that represents one of the film's most devastating consequences.

• fabian
• nurse
• affair
• love triangle
• violent assault
• coma