 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Huesera: The Bone Woman • Year: 2022 • Country: Mexico • Director: Michelle Garza Cervera • Main cast: Natalia Solián, Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla, Mercedes Hernández • Runtime: 93 minutes • Production company: Disruptiva Films, Machete Producciones, Maligno Gorehouse, Terminal • TRAILER
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Huesera, with the international title The Bone Woman (2022), is one of those movies where at the end of the watching you wonder if the whole thing happened under the influence of supernatural forces or if it was just the imagination of the main protagonist Valeria. The writer and director Michelle Garza Cervera take us to a tale of fears, regrets, family conflicts and devout beliefs that flirt with madness and tragedy.
Valeria is happily married to Raúl, yet, they crave to have a baby. After attending a fertility ritual with her aunt Isabel, she finally becomes pregnant expecting a little girl. But the happiness and euphoria of the couple don’t last long as Valeria starts to have horrifying visions and fears to be threatened by occult forces.
In the movie, we see how the poor young woman slowly falls into madness and desperation. First with small lapses of confusion but as soon the baby is born her actions start to threaten the health of the newborn, herself, and her family. She feels haunted and, of course, no one believes her. No one except her aunt, who takes her to her witch friends to carry on a ritual of sanitation.
Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) is closer to a drama film than horror, centering on the psychological aspects of the pregnancy process than on demonic creatures chasing the living. It shows the terrors of a young woman who is feeling how her body is changing, inbreeding a new creature inside of herself, something that not many people are ready for, no matter how badly it is wanted. Valeria has a big fear of commitment, and that is something many of the audience can relate to. The performance of Natalia Solián as the main protagonist is intense and manages to express those terrifying fears through a set of images carefully written and captured by the director.
Michelle Garza Cervera debuts with Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) as the director of a feature film, but she had a clear image of what she wanted to express and how to reach those objectives. The screenplay is solid and well structured, the performances are convincing, and the narrative is smooth taking the audience to be an accomplice of the devastating angst that the new mother is going through. And, in the end, each one of us can take our own conclusions.
Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on 9 June 2022 and won the Best New Narrative Director and Nora Ephron awards. It also was the winner of the Blood Window Award for Best Feature Film and Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation at the Sitges Film Festival. Those credentials were more than enough for Shudder to decide to include the film in their catalog where it’s already available. Another enjoyable addition.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt11718516
