Sophomore feature director Kerry Mondragon is certainly not afraid to show his influences. Setting his newest film Wetiko deep in the jungles of the Yucatan, Mondragon certainly gave himself and his crew a tall task when it comes to filming conditions, which plays out during the runtime of the feature with a few scenes where the lighting is so bad they are barely identifiable. Add into that mix a mess of a story that never feels like it comes together and the production feels like it was behind the eight ball from the very beginning.

Wetiko starts with the arrival of Luz (Dalia Xiuhcoatl) into the pet shop of Aapo’s (Juan Daniel Garcia Trevino) mother. Seduced by Luz’s advances, Aapo agrees to deliver two toads used for rituals to the “Empire of Love” deep in the jungle. After stealing a tourists’ bike, Aapo arrives to be introduced to the shaman/cult leader Zake (Neil Sandilands). We discover that he killed the previous shaman, a friend of Aapo’s mom. Zale is not native though, as he installed himself as shaman in order to enact a land deal, but has devolved into drinking from his own Kool-Aid. Shortly after arriving, Aapo is fed his first hallucinogen of the night, through nefarious means, and starts sinking into a series of nonsensical  decisions and delusions.

The saddest thing about Wetiko is the fact that we’ve seen most of these ideas before, better realized and more comprehensive. Viewers that survive the slog that is the first half hour of this film are rewarded with a non connected plot that makes no sense and seems to switch on a dime every five to ten minutes. To say that this story has plot holes a semi truck could be run through would be an understatement. This is all about visuals, not story, and ends up feeling as hollow as an empty Cadbury’s Creme Egg. Are there some interesting visuals and some creative choices behind the camera, sure. But anyone who has watched an art film or even another film about hallucinogenic intake has seen this before.

The biggest thing that can keep an audience engaged in a situation like this is a strong lead performance, and sadly Wetiko lacks that as well. Juan Daniel Garcia Trevino spends the majority of the film exuding the charisma of a cardboard cutout. His monotone delivery and ‘dead inside’ look that permeates the film does nothing to draw viewers in – instead it makes this film even harder to watch. Steamrolling him inadvertently is Xiuhcoatl’s competent performance as Luz. One can speculate whether Trevino’s performance was talent driven or director driven. Regardless, casting him as the lead was a terrible choice from the start. For the limited time that Sandilands is on screen (it’s almost 40 minutes in before he delivers his first line) he delivers the charisma you’d expect from a cult leader.It’s just that the script is so poor that it leaves his character little room to go before a truly horrendous ending.

I can’t articulate just how bad the ending of this film is here, so I won’t even try. Let’s just say it’s one of the dumbest decisions made by a character involving himself that I’ve seen attempted to be realized in a while.  Any morsel of goodwill the film has managed to achieve up til the ending is erased by this poor decision making. Wetiko ends up a poorly made ripoff of many good ideas others have had before it. But visually, director Mondragon shows that he might have an eye for film, but perhaps his ability to write is too far separated from this in the end. Wetiko is out now in a very limited release.