Huesera: The Bone Woman

A Mexican horror movie that explores the dark side of motherhood and its impact on a new mother, Valeria, who is tormented by an entity that cannot be named. The film takes a unique approach to the body horror and haunted house genres and presents them in an artfully crafted vessel that brings the characters and their relationships to life. The film won two major awards at the Tribeca Film Festival last summer.

Director Michelle Garza Cervera has a strong grasp on millennial color palettes and each shot in the film is beautifully composed and lit. The score and sound design also stand out for their ability to spike cortisol levels and make the Spanish-language punk tracks in the film seem soothing by comparison.

The most engaging aspect of the film is the characterization of Val, a woman caught between what she wants, what she thinks she should want, and what society wants for her. Val is a rebel with an anti-authoritarian punk rock past, and the idea that she is now a "Mama" first and a person second clearly bothers her. She doesn't take naturally to anything maternal, and her family's teasing about the time she.

Despite some cool horror scenes, Huesera is a boring, slow-paced drama that doesn't really go anywhere, nor does it leave any sort of message.

In the film there is the subplot of the main character and her gay relationship with her best friend, which is used as an excuse that she has a second identity, but this relationship never really comes to anything relevant, and neither does her relationship with her husband to be honest. It is simply the typical dose of mandatory forced inclusion these days.

Also many of the decisions and actions of the characters (especially some very important ones) are quite questionable, not to say stupid, and it is impossible not to cringe at the protagonist every time. Not to mention that the acting, especially of the main characters, is quite mediocre. It seems that in order not to include any caucasian characters (because there are no caucasians in Mexico, of course) they chose any actor they could find.

In itself a boring movie as a drama, and dull as a horror, Huesera fails twice as much.

Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) is a Mexican horror movie that I recently watched on Shudder. The storyline follows a young lady with a checkered past who has settled down with a good man and decided it's time to have a baby and start a family. Unfortunately, some things from her past may come back to haunt her and spoil her plans.

This movie is directed by Michelle Garza Cervera (Mexico Barbaro 2) and stars Natalia Solián (Red Shoes), Alfonso Dosal (Narcos: Mexico), Mayra Batalla (Prayers for the Stolen), Sonia Couoh (Potosi) and Mercedes Hernández (Identifying Features).

The storyline for this movie is fairly straightforward but well executed. The acting is very good, the settings are well selected and the story is well paced. The horror elements have great sound effects and some worthwhile open wounds that make you cringe. The last 15 minutes of the movie does a great job flipping on its head and contains fantastic horror elements. The people at the end of this movie are very creepy and perfectly executed...though I wish the movie got there faster. I also wish they dug a little deeper into the main character's past and into the things she needed to do to survive.

Overall, this movie is very average with a few worthwhile horror elements. I would score this a 5.5-6/10 and strongly recommend it.

Huesera, the directorial debut of Mexican filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera, presents itself as a film exploring the desire to be a mother and the consequences of having a child, all within a horror premise. However, the result is a movie that, although ambitious, leaves much to be desired.

One of the standout elements is undoubtedly Natalia Solián's performance. Her acting effectively conveys the nerves, fears, and trauma of being a first-time mother. Solián grabs the viewer's attention by making every emotion and doubt of her character feel genuine. The issue, however, is that the script and narrative don't support her.

The biggest problem with Huesera lies in its pacing and storytelling. The film becomes boring and tedious at several points, especially when it delves into areas where horror should be at the forefront but isn't. The lack of a consistent atmosphere of fear causes the film to lose its focus. The horror elements are missing, which leads to the film losing the tone it initially promised.

The script, on the other hand, is another weak point. The story feels incomplete, with many narrative gaps. There are moments where it seems material was cut during post-production, leaving unanswered questions and unexplained events. This affects the coherence of the plot.

"Huesera" begins with "Valeria" dropping off flowers at the base of the Virgen Monumental de Ocuilan and ends right after she participates in a restorative, native rite. In between, we find out that Valeria is a former punk-rocker with a love of bass guitars, power tools and a certain "Octavia." What is she in the present?

That is the central question is this rather well-done entry. The Valeria of the present is a woman who has (uneasily) embraced a conventional marriage to "Raul," an ad exec with wealthy parents. She lives in an upscale apartment, and she is pregnant with their first child. Yet as time passes, she appears to be the victim of increasingly violent hallucinatory episodes that lead her family and husband to grow both concerned for and irritated with her. "Pull it together," is the implied mantra; "a child is a blessing."

While the obvious comparison is to "Rosemary's Baby," the film - to its credit- veers more in the direction of such psychological thriller/horror films as Altman's "Images." And despite a fairly large cast, this movie really is about a single woman's POV - Valeria (played here by Natalia Solián) - and it is her world -- her frustrations, her fears, her sense of ambiguity, rejection and pain -- that are front and center for the duration of the film. Her attempts to negotiate the expectations of others -- often cruelly rejected by those others -- lead her to an increased debilitation that almost result in absolute tragedy. It is her (similarly outcast) aunt who helps her on her way to a restoration of self.

The film is a definite slow burn. But if you enjoy a more overtly psychological exploration of a woman-at-the-margins, torn between seemingly opposing social contexts, this might work for you.