HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN (2022)

4 stars

Arrow Video. Blu Ray. 26th January

Valeria (Natalia Solián) wants to be a mother – so much so that she visits a shrine to be blessed. As the camera pulls back it reveals a huge golden statue of the Virgin Mary… and then cuts to a woman in flames!

Her and her husband Raül (Alfonso Dosal) go about their daily lives, hoping she will fall pregnant, so they are ecstatic when she finally learns she is with child. The doctor recommends she stops doing her carpentry, she makes furniture in their flat, due to the chemicals involved in her processes.

Visiting family, her sister Vero (Sonia Couoh) is dismissive of their good news, especially as something happened in the past when Valeria was babysitting and dropped a baby.

One night, unable to sleep, Vero thinks she sees one of her neighbours throw themselves from an upper floor window. Their twisted body has bones protruding from it – which understandably freaks her out. When she gets her husband, there is nothing there…

Other odd things start to happen, like a ring at the door but there is no one there. Scared by what she is seeing, she goes to see a faith healer – a practitioner in black magic – to try and alleviate her anxieties. Which may not be the best move.

A slow burn, this has a strong, emotional central performance. Being sold as a horror, it has certain elements that push it into that genre, but they are few and far between – this is a more a drama examining a woman’s mental breakdown through her pregnancy. Is what she sees real or in her mind? Ultimately it does drop into folk horror territory.

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS

Audio commentary by film critic Kat Ellinger

Video essay by film critic Anton Bitel

Theatrical trailer/Image gallery

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch

Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by film critic Kat Hughes