The Wild Is Watching
There's something about Eric Bana and desolate landscapes. In The Dry, he stalked sun-scorched Australian outback towns where secrets festered like open wounds. Now, in Untamed, he's traded drought for dense forest—but the darkness follows. Netflix's teaser for the Yosemite-set thriller drips with unease: towering sequoias, mist-cloaked cliffs, and the kind of silence that screams.
This isn't just another crime procedural. Bana's Kyle Turner, a National Park Service investigator, isn't policing picnic violations. He's unraveling a death that “sends him on a collision course with the park's dark secrets—and his own past.” The logline echoes True Detective's rusted Americana, but swap Louisiana's swamps for granite monoliths. And with The Revenant co-writer Mark L. Smith shaping the script, expect nature as both ally and antagonist.
Bana's Wilderness Redemption
Bana's recent resurgence (The Dry, Force of Nature) hinges on his ability to play men frayed by trauma but sharpened by it, too. His Turner feels cut from the same cloth—a lawman whose jurisdiction is “nature's vast wilderness,” a phrase that suggests less CSI and more Heart of Darkness. The supporting cast deepens the intrigue: Sam Neill (always a welcome wildcard), Lily Santiago, and Rosemary DeWitt hint at layered alliances.
The real co-star? Yosemite itself. Cinematography will make or break this—will it romanticize the park's beauty or weaponize its isolation? Early stills suggest both: golden light slicing through pines, then swallowed by shadow.
The Netflix Wilderness Boom
Untamed arrives as streaming platforms mine wilderness terror for prestige (Yellowjackets, The Wilds). But where those lean survivalist, this leans procedural—with a twist. The National Park Service's Investigative Services Branch (ISB) is a real unit, solving crimes across 85 million acres. It's fertile ground for a franchise—The Dry's outback noir transplanted to America's backyard.
Release dates matter here: July 17, 2025. That's peak summer—when audiences crave escapism but might just prefer it laced with dread.
The Big Question
Can Untamed balance its lofty influences (The Revenant's brutality, True Detective's existential grit) with bingeable momentum? Or will it get lost in the woods? The teaser's tone—ominous yet sleek—hints at the former. But as any hiker knows, the trail's easy until it isn't.
