Huesera: The Bone Woman review: pregnancy body horror dialed up to 11

in a horror movie Wecera, Valeria (Natalia Sorian) wants to become a mother. She demonstrates her devotion to this idea by making a pilgrimage to the shrine for Our Lady of Guadalupe to pray that the Virgin Mary will bless her womb. Valeria, a craftsman who makes furniture for her livelihood, is looking forward to a positive pregnancy test with her boyfriend Raoul (Alfonso her Dosal) for her future baby. Make your own crib. Then something starts to bother her. She’s someone who takes on unnatural forms and makes her feel like her bones are broken, maybe because, in some ways, they are.

The directorial debut of Michel Garza-Cervera. Wecera — This translates to the English subtitles of the film. woman of bones — looks at motherhood through the lens of body horror.Other people’s expectations weigh heavily on the couple about to start a family, but weigh most on the pregnant, starting to infringe on Valeria’s peace of mind. Wecera What stands out is that her fear stems not from the external pressure placed on Valeria, but from her expectations of herself.

WeceraCo-written by Cervera with Avia Castillo, The script is methodical and clear, as supernatural apparitions quietly intrude into the intimate drama.Not long after being pregnant, Valeria begins to see things in her—sometimes spiders, but more often faceless women who falter as they crawl from shadow to shadow at the edge of Valeria’s vision. in a way the babadookthe apparition is clearly symbolic, but perhaps also real — a malevolent nameless spirit that only Valeria can see, in such a way that her family begins to question her mental health. make her act.

in the meantime Wecera While remaining coy about the nature of its terrifying existence, the film is less opaque about the part of Valeria’s past that it’s metaphor for. Build and begin to quietly mourn the parts of yourself that you gave up to passionately pursue your homework vision. She dug up the trunks of the relics of her not-too-distant past, ran around with her queer punks, and lashed out at her traditional gender roles, which she now readily agrees to. Wecera The transition between punk Valeria and current Valeria is left to the imagination of the viewer. It’s mainly to its benefit. Wecera It spends its time on something a little more complicated than the well-worn story about a woman changed by impending motherhood.

Ritual is the focus Wecera It builds both its horror and its character studies in compelling ways. Its scenes are built around rituals of all sorts. The first pilgrimage to Our Lady as gunshots echo through the forest around the shrine. The ritual of domestic life as Valeria and Raul begin nesting is interrupted by an apparition. The art and noise of a punk show where Valeria begins to believe she’s trapped in a life that she doesn’t really want. And in folk witchcraft rituals practiced by women in private spaces away from the prying eyes of church and patriarchy, mothers and daughters bargain with unseen forces to control their destinies. try to dominate.

avoid jump scares, Wecera Instead, it relies on the internality of the protagonist. The film is firmly focused on Valeria, and Natalia Sorian does the narrative burden effortlessly. Other characters fade in and out around her, but Valeria is the only character who has a real arc. Support characters mostly act as foils and reflections, or impassable paths. Sorian’s performance is understated, quietly raising terrifying questions about her parenthood.

Image: XYZ Film

Wecera The wood of sturdy furniture, the bones of animals consumed for meat, the expectations of motherhood, speak in a language that breaks and hardens as solid structures crack under pressure. A mighty hand pries these things from their assigned purpose.of Wecera, Valeria is the hands of craftsmen, the hands of craftsmen, and their medium. She screams in agony because her bones are bent in ways they weren’t meant to be, but she longs to have her life distorted into the shape molded by her desires. . Cervera has created an allegory of motherhood that responds to tradition by asking: Catholic strictness embodied in the sculpture of the Virgin Mary? Rebellious punks? When a person in transition in life is pulled in different directions, the body deforms and the bones reset.

Huesera: Bone Woman It is in limited theatrical release It will be available on VOD on February 16th, following the release of Shudder.