La Llorona by Jayro Bustamante
The recent success of some Latin American horror films such as Jayro Bustamante’s La Llorona and Michelle Garza Cervera’s Huesera: The Bone Woman, have demonstrated the long tradition and growing popularity of genre cinema in the region. Don’t miss these five thrilling films this Halloween!
HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN
A film by Michelle Garza Cervera
(Mexico/Peru, 2022, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Available on AMC+ and Amazon Prime Video
Winner of the Best New Narrative Director and Nora Ephron awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, the supernatural horror film Huesera tells the story of Valeria (Natalia Solián in a breakthrough performance), whose joy at becoming pregnant with her first child is quickly taken away when she's cursed by a sinister entity. As danger closes in and relationships with her family become fractured, she's forced deeper into a chilling world of dark magic that threatens to consume her. A group of witches emerge that could be her only hope for safety and salvation, but not without grave risk. With a mostly female cast and crew, the remarkable debut feature by director Michelle Garza Cervera, uses Mexican folklore to tell a terrifying and unexpected story about motherhood.
LA LLORONA
A film by Jayro Bustamante
(Guatemala, 2019, 96 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Available on Sling TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, Apple TV, The Roku Channel
Indignant retired general Enrique finally faces frail for the genocidal massacre of thousands of Mayans decades ago. As a horde of angry protestors threatens to invade their opulent home, the women of the house —his haughty wife, conflicted daughter, and precocious granddaughter—weigh their responsibility to shield the erratic, senile Enrique against the devastating truths being publicly revealed and the increasing sense that a wrathful supernatural force is targeting them for his crimes. Meanwhile, much of the family’s domestic staff flees, leaving only loyal housekeeper Valeriana until a mysterious young Indigenous maid arrives.
A tale of horror and magical realism, the film reimagines the iconic Latin American fable as an urgent metaphor of Guatemala’s recent history and tears open the country’s unhealed political wounds to grieve a seldom discussed crime against humanity. La Llorona marks Bustamante’s third feature and demonstrates his continued efforts to highlight social inequality in his native Guatemala following his previous titles Temblores (2019) and Ixcanul (2016).
WHEN EVIL LURKS / CUANDO ACECHA LA MALDAD
Directed by Demián Rugna
(Argentina, 2023, 99 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
When brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón) discover that a demonic infection has been festering in a nearby farmhouse — its very proximity poisoning the local livestock — they attempt to evict the victim from their land. Failing to adhere to the proper rites of exorcism, their reckless actions inadvertently trigger an epidemic of possessions across their rural community. Now they must outrun an encroaching evil as it corrupts and mutilates everyone it is exposed to, and enlist the aid of a wizened “cleaner,” who holds the only tools that can stop this supernatural plague.
GOOD MANNERS / AS BOAS MANEIRAS
A film by Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra
(Brazil/France, 2017, 135 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Filmmakers Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra’s second collaboration (after the acclaimed Hard Labor) deftly integrates art-house and genre cinema to create a thrilling and dark gothic fable with sharp social commentary. Set in São Paulo, the film follows Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of the city who is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana to be the nanny of her soon to be born child. Against all odds, the two women develop a strong bond. But a fateful night marked by a full moon changes their plans. With powerful visuals and impeccable cinematography, Good Manners is Disney meets Jacques Tourneur, an unexpected and wild werewolf movie unlike any other, and a poignant class and racial allegory on modern-day Brazilian society.
THE WOLF HOUSE / LA CASA LOBO
A film by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña
(Chile, 2018, 72 min. In Spanish and German with English subtitles)
Available on OVID.tv
Combining stop-motion techniques, painting, and photography, this exquisitely handcrafted animation feature tells the story of Maria, a young woman who finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. She is welcomed into the home by two pigs, the only inhabitants of the place. Like in a dream, the universe of the house reacts to Maria’s feelings, morphing and changing around her. The animals transform slowly into humans and the house becomes a nightmarish world. Inspired by the actual case of Colonia Dignidad during Chile’s darkest years under Augusto Pinochet, The Wolf House masquerades as an animated fairy tale produced by the leader of the sect in order to indoctrinate its followers.
