“Infiesto” is a new Spanish crime thriller film on Netflix that makes one relive the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic and the long lockdowns. Playing out in March 2020, the film presents the story of two police detectives involved in solving a case of multiple kidnappings. Although the final revelation seems a bit dull and the ending is a bit rushed, “Infiesto” is an overall entertaining thriller to watch.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Infiesto’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
In March 2020, the Spanish government called for an initial fifteen days of State of Alarm after monitoring the global effect of the relatively new coronavirus outbreak. While this term happens to be the official name for such events in Spain, “state of alarm” essentially means a lockdown in which citizens are not allowed to leave their homes unless there is an absolute emergency. Amidst such a scenario, two policemen in the Asturian region of northern Spain come across a young girl dressed in scanty white clothes with a ritualistic doll in her hands. The girl is immediately admitted to a hospital, and the detectives of the local police department are informed about the case. When inspector Garcia and sub-inspector Castro arrive at the hospital, more information about the girl is revealed. The young girl, named Saioa Blanco, had been missing for three months before being found, and binding marks and other injuries on her body suggest that she had been kept hostage somewhere for all this time. The two detectives next meet with the two policemen who had found the girl, named Ramos and Altuna, and learned that Saioa is a resident of the nearby mining town of Infierno. Together, Garcia and Castro go to the place to inform the girl’s mother about her well-being and also to start looking for suspects.
The first suspect that the police had right after Saioa’s disappearance was her stepfather since the man had separated from her mother only a few days before the disappearance. However, nothing against him can be found, so the detectives move on to their next suspect, a man named Manuel Gomez, also known as the Dog Killer. This man had been reported to have tried to kidnap a woman only the previous week, and his house is very close to the spot where Saioa had been found. Garcia and Castro go to investigate, but there is nothing unusual at first glance. However, just after they have left the property, the detectives are informed of traces of items found on Saioa’s fingernails that match exactly with Gomez’s stable. A chase follows, but Gomez ultimately manages to shoot himself dead, giving the police nothing other than a warning that all this was just the beginning and that more was about to come. Determined to find the girl’s kidnapper and stop them, detectives Garcia and Castro continue working through the lockdown period, despite having to stay away from their own close ones.
What Do The Police Find Out About Saioa’s Kidnappers?
Although the background of the COVID-19 outbreak remains, “Infiesto” majorly becomes a thriller film about Garcia and Castro trying to track down the perpetrators in this kidnapping case. From their search of Manuel Gomez’s property, the police found new leads about the man’s close associate, who was apparently his cousin. Looking more into the matter, they realize that this cousin was not a relation of Gomez but a childhood friend, referred to in the neighborhood as the “Demon.” The detectives track down Demon’s caravan but somehow manage to save themselves as the vehicle had been booby-trapped to kill them with a dangerous explosion. From the evidence found inside the caravan, it becomes clear that the Demon and Gomez were the ones involved in Saioa’s kidnapping, and that they had also done the same with multiple other young girls and boys. Ritualistic items such as dolls and clothes were strewn across the whole place, and also in photographic evidence reveals that there is some angle of occult practices and sacrifice to this whole case. Interrogating some relatives of the Demon, Garcia, and Castro find out about a possible hideout of the man, an old-abandoned hermitage up the mountains. By the time the police force reaches the spot, the Demon is ready for them, and a shootout follows. The police manage to outlast this fight, and ultimately the Demon is arrested. While this seems like a major breakthrough, interrogating the man turns out to be rather frustrating, as he refuses to say anything.
By now, though, it is clear that the Demon was involved in the kidnappings, as he himself admits, and he then gradually goes on to speak some more about it. He says that these children were meant as sacrifices to the Celtic god Taranis and that he and Gomez were just workers following their leader’s orders. Demon does not make any secret of the fact that he, too, religiously believed in all these rituals, and he also goes on to say that the COVID pandemic is indeed the end of the world as humans had forgotten the old gods and had therefore irked them. When asked about who the leader is, the Demon only mentions the cryptic identity of someone called the Prophet and does not say anything more. Despite multiple attempts on the part of the police as well as Garcia personally, the real name of Prophet is not revealed by Demon, and the man just hysterically laughs away such efforts. The police department looks into the figure of Taranis, and along with the items and symbols found in the place of the rituals, they get a clearer picture of what was going on. Someone with the utmost belief in Celtic and Druid mythology was sacrificing hostages every three months as part of a medieval ritual cycle in order to keep Taranis appeased. Although Saioa had somehow managed to escape the place, the whereabouts of the other hostages were unknown, and they were most likely dead already. When asked about Saioa’s escape, the Demon admits to having kept her hostage but says that Gomez did not follow certain orders, due to which the girl could get out and reach the police.
Inspector Gomez, at first, does not believe in the Demon’s claims about a third man being involved with them, and he feels that he is lying to get away. But as Saioa has started to recover from her trauma by this time, the detectives ask her about how many men had kidnapped her, and she clearly mentions that there were three. Soon search for this Prophet begins, and a common phone number is traced from Demon and Gomez’s call logs, but this does not lead anywhere as the number is registered in the name of a man who had died some years ago. To build some more pressure on the police department, it is only two days away from spring, meaning that the kidnapper would take one more hostage to sacrifice in order to usher in the new season. Soon enough, the Prophet does strike, as a young woman working as a nurse in the hospital is kidnapped in her own car from the hospital parking lot. While working at her desk, sub-inspector Castro spots a person on the empty streets looking straight at her, and she rushes to interrogate them. Although this person tries to run away, Castro catches up in time and reveals the stalker to be a woman named Lidia Vega. The woman does not say anything at all, but her expressions do seem to suggest that she wanted to say something to Castro. Thinking that she was just a vagrant, Castro lets her go. But as it turns out, sometime later, Lidia Vega happens to have been a member of an occult group that used the same symbol that was now being used on the victims of this case. Now a resident of a homeless shelter, Vega had moved away from that life but knew a lot about it. As Castro sits down to talk to her and learn more about the gang, Inspector Garcia talks to the local policemen of Infiesto to get to know more about the man locally known as the Prophet.
The background of the COVID-19 outbreak is rather interesting and relatable to watch in this film, even though it is not directly linked to the case. Both the protagonists, Garcia and Castro, are affected by the virus in some way through their close relatives. Garcia is separated from his wife but is on good terms with her, and he is unable to meet his children due to the lockdown as they are staying with their mother. What is even more difficult is that his elderly mother stays at a retirement home that has stopped letting any visitors enter because of the lockdown protocols. In a rather heartbreaking manner, the mother passes away within a few days as the authorities did not even take her to the hospital, and Garcia was not let to even see her for one last time. This directly relates to the misery of thousands of people in Spain, which was one of the worst-affected countries in the first phase of the outbreak in 2020. His mother’s death in such a manner affects Garcia professionally as well, as he tortures the Devil out of a frustration stemming from this loss. On the other side, Castro lives with her boyfriend in the same house but has to maintain social distance and isolation as he starts to show symptoms of the virus. The boyfriend’s condition gets worse gradually, and he even has to be admitted to the hospital midway through the film. Castro is not allowed to see him or visit his ward due to the rules, and all she can do is keep taking updates from the doctor treating him. By the end of the film, Castro’s boyfriend does recover, though, and the two are finally allowed to meet and spend some time together. Along with the personal lives of these two characters, the virus has an effect on the world and on the dialogue too. The erstwhile common but desperate questions about how serious the virus was or when things would get back to normal are spread throughout the film, along with scenes of ambulances rushing to the hospitals as the count of patients kept increasing. It is also because of the lack of healthy members in the police force due to the virus that detectives Garcia and Castro have to work alone or in a very small group for most of the film.
‘Infiesto’ Ending Explained: Who Was The Prophet? What Happens To Garcia And Castro?
As Garcia asks around about the Prophet, now even with an old picture of the possible suspect from his younger days, he finally finds a lead. One of the policemen who had originally found Saioa, agent Ramos, identifies the man in the picture but mentions that he had not seen him in many years. Upon Garcia’s request, Ramos takes him to a nearby house that used to belong to the Prophet’s father, and the detective immediately realizes that they are in the right place. Seeing the kidnapped nurse’s car parked outside, the two enter the house, and Garcia stumbles upon an old skeleton with a decayed dead body inside. This rotting body can be understood to be that of the Devil’s father. The detective has to step out to control himself when his partner, detective Castro, calls him.
Back at the shelter, Castro sat down with Lidia Vega to hear more about the gang she was part of in her youth. Lidia reveals that the group was originally a hippie gang that cared only about drugs and uninhibited sex until their leader developed an avid interest in Celtic and Druid mythology. Out of this interest, the leader started calling himself the Prophet and then tried to perform a ritual on Lidia. That was when the woman somehow managed to escape and tried to turn her life around. Castro asks her about the real identity of the Prophet, to which Lidia responds that the man was called Ramos and that he was from the mining town of Infiesto. This information finally confirms that the real perpetrator was police agent Ramos, and we then see him shoot and kill detective Garcia back at the house. The reason why Ramos let Saioa escape in the first place when he found her on the road is not delved into by the film. But to think of a reason, it was probably only because he was with his police partner Altuna at the time, and he could not afford to reveal his real identity. At the very beginning of the film, when we see Saioa get approached by the two policemen, the young girl screams out hysterically. While it had originally seemed to be part of the girl’s PTSD, now it is clear that she screamed out of fear, for she had just seen the man who had kept her hostage and tried to perform a ritual on her. In this context, it is possible to even argue that the COVID situation helped Ramos, as he always kept wearing a mask throughout the film, being one of the earliest ones to do so. Had his face not been hidden away at all times, Garcia could have recognized him from the old photograph of the Prophet.
When detective Garcia was going with Ramos to the house on the final night, he texted Castro excitedly, saying that he was close to finding the Prophet. Therefore, when Castro finds out about Ramos’ identity, she immediately calls Garcia to warn him, but it is all too late. Detective Castro soon arrives at the scene and finds Garcia’s body. The next day, accompanied by a big police squad, Castro goes to an abandoned mine near the house in search of Ramos. She is led down the elevator to long tunnels inside the mine, where she goes alone and hears the screams of a woman. The kidnapped nurse had still not been killed but was being prepared to be sacrificed by a frantic Ramos, who was now dressed in the attire of a Druid priest. Finally, after a gunfight, detective Castro kills Ramos and puts an end to the horrible Prophet’s acts. Not only does she rescue the nurse, but she also takes very personal revenge by bringing down the killer of her much-beloved detective partner Garcia. In the end, as Castro visits the hospital with a bullet wound on her arm and meets with her recovering boyfriend, an announcement of the extension of the lockdown for fifteen more days is heard.
“Infiesto” is a 2023 Drama Thriller film directed by Patxi Amezcua.
