A concept like aliens inseminating humans to create a master race of half-human half-aliens to walk undetected among humanity’s masses sounds grotesque, terrifying, and intriguing all in one. But despite the original concept with much promise, Embryo falls short of its full potential due to choppy time jumps, and incongruent storytelling.

Kevin (Domingo Guzmán) and his girlfriend Evelyn (Romina Perazzo) go on a romantic camping getaway resulting in a long-awaited engagement. That night, Evelyn awakes to strange noises and (naturally) decides to pursue them. The next morning Kevin finds Evelyn dazed and slimy and it turns out she’s carrying an alien-human hybrid fetus. Anyone who has ever been pregnant knows that cravings tend to follow. But in Evelyn’s case… that craving is human flesh.

Embryo bounces around between the main story (Evelyn and Kevin) and two other storylines (a family, and a boyfriend and girlfriend filming a dance video). The introduction of the subplots revolving around other families experiencing extraterrestrial tragedy dampened the overall impact of the main story. Focusing solely on Evelyn’s struggle to maintain normalcy and Kevin’s feeble attempts to stop Evelyn’s newfound bloodlust and just mentioning the other stories in passing would have been much more effective than forcing two additional narratives into the overall story. I appreciate director Patricio Valladares’ vision of quick flashbacks and time hops, evoking a sort of trauma recall one might experience with alien abduction, but the attempt fell flat and created too much disconnect and chop.

Several story inconsistencies and subplots are left dangling in the wind without explanation. For example, two women who are allegedly impregnated by these otherworldly beings have two completely different pregnancies. I know that no two human pregnancies are alike, but we are talking about a 9-month gestation vs. a quick weekend pregnancy. And normal expected behavior juxtaposed to a cannibalistic seductress. It would stand to reason that if both women were carrying alien babies they would (in theory) act similarly. There were no similarities to be found. And during flashbacks of the family’s trip to Europe, there is absolutely no mention of aliens or strange behavior. It felt like filler and appeared to serve no purpose in terms of pushing the story forward or character development (apart from establishing that there is a family and that they do things together).

The overwhelming amount of news anchor exposition helped provide some clarification on the interconnectedness, but even the news story sounded far beyond belief with its report of Evelyn and Kevin and their connection to previous disappearances. It felt like Valladares needed a way to wrap things up and a news story was the way out. 

Overall there are some admirable things about Embryo. The lead actors were strong, the setting was beautiful, and the story had potential. Unfortunately, the final product is one that is not so out of this world.

Movie Rating: 3 out of 10