Decapoda Shock
2011 · 9m · España
Directed by Javier Chillon
Genres: action, sci-fi, thriller
An astronaut returns to Earth after a fatal incident on a distant planet and, discovering he was the victim of a sinister conspiracy, seeks revenge on those responsible for his family's disappearance.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A revenge thriller wrapped in sci-fi drag that could've been utterly forgettable—except Chillon buries the actual plot twist so deep in formal restraint and visual abstraction that you're halfway through asking if this is even a narrative film at all. That refusal to play the premise straight is exactly the kind of contrarian move that makes most scouts nervous and me insufferable at parties.
Chillon's compositional control—the way he frames negative space and lets conspiracy unfold through mise-en-scène rather than exposition—situates this in a lineage of 70s paranoia thrillers and modernist sci-fi that respects the viewer's intelligence; the editing rhythm feels considered, almost formally austere for a revenge narrative.
The decision to drain the astronaut's face of affect and reaction throughout creates this haunting uncanniness that costs nothing but commitment to a single emotional register—it's that restraint, that refusal to perform trauma, that elevates what could've been stock material into something genuinely unsettling.