Netflix has released a new trailer for the chilling survival thriller about what it takes to survive an impossible ordeal With a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a decision to represent Spain in the International Feature Film category at the 2024 Academy Awards, "Society of the Snow" is one of the most anticipated films to be streamed in the coming year

Society of the Snow, the latest film from Spanish director JA Bayona ("The Impossible," "Orphanage"), is based on the tragic true story of the 1972 Andes flight accident in Uruguay After a plane chartered to fly a Uruguayan rugby team to Chile crashed in the heart of the Andes, the surviving members were stranded for months in the frozen wilderness and had to resort to extreme measures if they had any hope of surviving one of the most harsh and inaccessible environments on earth will not be possible

What makes Bayona's film stand out among survival thrillers inspired by true stories is that he goes to great lengths to put the audience in the shoes of a frostbite survivor Special makeup artists David Marti and Monse Ribe, who won an Oscar for Pan's Labyrinth, create realistic wounds that are not for the faint of heart

The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Uruguayan journalist and screenwriter Pablo Vielch, whose filmmakers and actors made extensive contact with survivors and victims' families to do their stories justice

As you can see in the trailer below, the icy conditions are so real that you shudder along with the poor young people

"Society of the Snow" will be released in limited theaters in December, followed by distribution on Netflix on January 4, 2024

Critics have already praised "Society of the Snow," which currently has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes Spanish film and TV site Espinof called it one of the best disaster films ever made

"Time Out," while noting that "the depiction of the crash will forever take you away from air travel," is a haunting but essential film for cinephiles as a whole: "Filmed high in Spain's frozen Sierra Nevada mountains, the Andean flight This moving reenactment of the accident plunges you into the middle of a freezing inferno and makes you feel not only sympathy for the victims, but also a little sympathy for the cast of young Uruguayan and Argentine actors and crew who so effectively recreated it One would hope they were wearing winter clothes"

If you are familiar with the real-life tragedy, you already know the desperate measures taken by the survivors when faced with the very real possibility of starving to death in a freezing inferno If not, spoiler alert: the answer is cannibalism

But while "Society of the Snow" does not shy away from depicting the truly traumatic experiences the group had to endure, it also does not glorify them Instead, the film devotes a good portion of its screen time to the lasting psychological toll it takes on a person to even consider resorting to eating human flesh in order to survive, much less to do so

Do you stick to your morals and face the painful, slow death of starvation? Or will they live a life forever haunted by their actions? How will these young people reconcile their religious beliefs with these impossible circumstances? These are all questions, critics say, that Bayona addressed with the weight they deserved

From the impeccable performances of the young Uruguayan and Argentine actors to the stunning cinematography and soundtrack, "Society of the Snow" seems poised to be a film that will stay with audiences long after the credits roll