31 Days of Halloween: Huesera: The Bone Woman

2022,  Michelle Garza Cervera (feature debut) -- download

Perhaps if I was more connected to religion, motherhood and doubts about sexuality, I guess I would find more to relate to with this movie? But, that said, its not always about relating to a movie or its characters & situations, as long as you connect with the style, and in this case, the horror elements. The problem is that there was very few horror elements involved, and almost the entire movie is focused on the drama of a young woman becoming a mother, and it being the clincher of her doubting all of her life choices. Oh, the horror elements, when present are more than sufficiently creepy, but I found it was all just hand-waved away with no explanation seemingly required.

Valeria (Natalia Solián, Red Shoes) is happily married to Raúl (Alfonso Dosal, 3 Idiots) and are trying to get pregnant. At least they seem happy enough, rolling around on the floor, wrestling and laughing. Then it happens, Valeria gets pregnant. Its like a light goes on, and the doubt is seen on her face. Not long after, while looking out the window on a warm night, she sees a women across the street, get up and jump out the window. When Valeria tries to show her husband the broken body, it is not there.

From there she is haunted by this creaky, crawling apparition with no face and cracking bones. After a few encounters she goes to her "spinster" aunt, who is very obviously a lesbian, and I am not all that familiar with queer culture in Mexico, but it implies a tie to the supernatural as well, and her aunt's friend, a bruja of sorts tells Valeria that indeed she has a spirit attached to her, but she shouldn't worry, it will go away soon. I got the impression that perhaps, in Mexican culture, that doubts and worries can invite in the wrong sort of spirits, sort of like bad thinking can summon unseelie fey folk.

It gets worse. Not really the creepy-crawly bone woman, but more Valeria's disconnect with becoming a mother. Months are passing, she is having constant issues, and even returns to the punk life of her teen years, and reignites a relationship she had with a woman. She makes  passing attempt at babysitting her niece and nephew, but that is a disaster when the bone woman makes an appearance and Val freaks out, hurting the children in turn. Nobody trusts her, not her family, not her husband, not her ex-GF. 

And then she has the baby. She finds no connection whatsoever, not even wanting to look on the child, and in a state of post-partum delusion, she briefly becomes the bone woman herself, and hides the baby in the fridge, to find some peace. She realizes that if she doesn't do something drastic, she will lose everything so she turns to her aunt, and her friends, and a ritual is performed. It apparently drives off the bone woman but it doesn't change how Valeria feels, and the movie ends on her leaving the baby with her husband, as she departs that life.

In saying/writing it out loud, it sounds compelling and dramatic, but in execution, I was not captivated at all. I just found little to no connection with the characters and the situations. While the monsters was creepy, we don't know what or why it exists, and while I was able to forgive that missing element from The Grimcutty, I am not sure why I could not accept it here. And then there was the ritual that drove the spirit away -- the movie jumps suddenly from a tragic drama, to .... art school final project? Naked, writhing women in the forest, a macramé shawl wearing image of Valeria that catches on fire, all kinds of imagery which... just left me mystified. Again, I can only guess it had some meaning in Mexico? But I found none.

A bit of Googling will tell you there is a folk tale from Mexico, about The Bone Woman, attributing to it an old woman who wanders a desert collecting bones. Buuuuut, how does that connect to this movie? How does that connect to motherhood? Still not finding anything....