Review: A Woman Loses Herself In Bloodcurdling Mexican Body Horror ‘Huesera: The Bone Woman
Wracked with remorse, young Valeria (Natalia Salyan) "Vesera. The Bone Woman is Mexico's entry into the film subgenre. body horror. Writer-director Michel Garza Cervera's remarkable debut is as intellectually sharp as it is thrilling.
Motherhood, a sign of full femininity, carries a lot of weight for Valeria in a country that values the image of the selfless matriarch ready to sacrifice everything for her children, a devotion that blends with the religious divinity of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Even the reception of her husband Raul (Alfonso Dosal) cannot calm her worries about this possibility.
As pregnancy progresses, the spirit weakens. Only an emotional snap of the fingers frees him from the microaggressions of the women in the family, except for his aunt Chabela (Mercedes Hernandez), who is happily single and childless but doomed to be.
Valeria's general anxiety soon turns into a vivid vision of a monstrous female entity stumbling around with broken bones. The grotesque sound of crushing bones is ear-splitting. "When you become a mother you feel like you've been cut in half," Valeria's mother-in-law reassures her, but this only increases her fear.
Garza Servera deftly orchestrates each scene to place her tormented heroine in a situation that challenges her desire to become a mother in the eyes of those around her. Solyan's heart-wrenching screams and anguished facial expressions frighten the viewer more than the well-thought-out otherworldly events, as the fear spirals into ever-increasing desperation.
There is no more visual representation of the expectations placed on women in Hüsera than when Valeria destroys his carpentry workshop by turning her carpentry workshop into a child's bedroom, leaving her partner's music room intact. In several poignant shots by cinematographer Noor Rubio Chervel, Valeria appears in a makeshift cradle that resembles the web in which she is trapped, a pattern that reappears as she goes deeper into hiding.
At first, Raul refuses to have sex with her, citing that he is taking care of the growing cubs, and then he and his mother decide whether Valeria should start anti-depressants. For them, his personality and activities become secondary compared to his role in the birth and upbringing of children. Although the conversation is fleeting in the dinner scene, it reinforces society's view of women trying to balance the unfair demands of family and work.
- Did you want that? the healer asks Valeria about the pregnancy, and her humble gesture doesn't seem enthusiastic. he crushed himself to maintain the status quo. In this forgotten and nobler version of himself, his relationship with the non-conformist feminist Octavia (Mira Batala) was essential.
Despite what might be expected, the Weather doesn't end with the birth and doesn't follow the path of Rosemary's baby. Instead, panic gets the better of her this time and almost drives Valeria into a terrible act. He must enlist the help of women with powers we don't fully understand for a series that includes all the symbols of history, mixing digital effects with everyday mystique and success.
As the film finally succumbs to the supernatural element, Garza Servero makes it clear that Weather's worst nightmare is coming to pass.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
