STORYLINE

CHICHÓN and GATO are two cousins who work as macheteros cutting roads into the jungle under “alpha male” foreman JULIO for the enigmatic landowner DON JACK. It’s tough, dangerous work, and they spend their hard-earned money drinking and gambling on cockfights with fellow macheteros INTELIS, RASMOISES, FLACO, TERCO, and RICKY.

At the end of a big project, Don Jack offers them a deal: a job on the other side on the island for crazy money, on an expedited timeline, but they have to keep it quiet. Nobody can know where they are, or what they are doing.

It’s too fishy for Gato. He turns it down, and Chichón is kicked off the job by Julio as retaliation.

Chichón, short on cash and desperate to provide for his family, tries to convice Gato to go back, but he remains incorrigible. In desperation, he makes a reckless bet that leaves him destitute. Gato, having his family’s back, has no choice: the two of them re-join the macheteros as they set off on their journey into the mountains.

The macheteros find the campsite eerily abandoned, full of signs of recent work that indicate that whoever was there before had simply vanished. Julio’s iron-fisted leadership style, the difficulties of working in the jungle, and a series of strange phenoemena begin to wear the crew down.

They experience sound bubbles in the jungle; strange chirps unlike any known creature. And of course, the heat; the mosquitoes; the backbreaking work.

Before long, Flaco is attacked by the CIGUAPA, a blue-skinned spirit of vengeance that lives in a nearby river. Her backwards feet, long black hair, and disgusingly slimy tongue belie her ability to posses men at a glance through eye contact. To them, she is a beautiful woman, the most desirable creature on earth. To her, they are mere invaders. She takes full advantage, puppeting them and repaying what was done in her past life as NÍGUALI, an indigenous Taíno murdered during the era of colonization.

Before long, the other macheteros notice Flaco’s absence. Julio’s fist-forward approach to dealing with morale issues escalates things into physical violence. Chichón’s shortfalls cause a series of accidents that injure his friends. Gato and Chichón have a falling out. A full on mutiny erups and Don Jack reappears with a militia to find and punish a snitch.

The noise draws the Ciguapa’s attention, leading her to attack the camp. All hell breaks loose. The militia is wiped out, the macheteros scatter into the jungle to escape.

But Gato is possessed, taken by the monster, and disappears.

As the sun rises the next morning, Chichón has to make a decision: does he bail out to save his skin, or does he risk certain death to confront the Ciguapa and rescue his cousin?