Huesera: The Bone Woman review: pregnancy body horror dialed up to 11

The horror film Huesera, Valeria (Natalia Solián) wants to be a mother. This is how she shows her dedication to the idea. She makes a pilgrimage for Our Lady of Guadalupe, praying that Mary will bless her womb. A craftswoman who makes furniture for a living, Valeria eagerly awaits a positive pregnancy test with her boyfriend, Raúl (Alfonso Dosal), while building a crib for their future baby herself. Then, something starts haunting Valeria. It’s a figure with unnatural forms and making her feel as if her bones are crumbling. They might be, at least in some ways.

Michelle Garza Cervera makes her directorial debut. Huesera — which translates to the film’s English subtitle, The Bone Woman — looks at motherhood through the lens of body horror. Other people’s expectations — which weigh heavily on any couple looking to start a family, but on the pregnant person the most — begin to infringe on Valeria’s peace of mind. However, where? Huesera It stands out because it is not due to external pressures on Valeria but rather her own expectations.

Huesera’s script — which Cervera co-wrote with Abia Castillo — is methodical and clear, as a supernatural apparition quietly invades an intimate drama. Not long after getting pregnant, Valeria begins to see things — sometimes a spider, but more often, a faceless woman whose bones break as she crawls from shadow to shadow at the edge of Valeria’s vision. Similar to Babadook, the apparition is clearly symbolic, but also possibly real — a malign, unnamed spirit that only Valeria can see, causing her to act out in ways that make her family begin to question her mental health.

Photo by XYZ Films

However Huesera remains coy about the nature of its horrific presence, the film is less opaque about the part of Valeria’s past that it’s a metaphor for. As her pregnancy progresses, Valeria begins to quietly mourn the parts of herself that she gave up to pursue the vision of domesticity that she’s applied herself to so diligently, making meals for Raúl and building a nursery. She finds a box containing relics of her past when she was surrounded by queer punks, and decries the gender roles that she accepts. Huesera leaves the transition between punk Valeria and present Valeria to the viewer’s imagination. That’s largely to its benefit, because HueseraIt is more than just a story on a mother who has experienced the changes of becoming a mother.

There’s a focus on ritual in HueseraThis builds its terror and its character study in fascinating ways. Its scenes are built around rituals of all kinds: its opening pilgrimage to the Holy Virgin, even as the sound of gunfire cracks through the woods around the shrine; the rituals of domesticity as Valeria and Raúl begin nesting, which are disrupted by the apparition; the art and noise of a punk show where Valeria begins to believe she’s trapped herself in a life she doesn’t really want; and in the folkloric rituals of witchcraft that women practice in private spaces, away from the prying eyes of church and patriarchy, where mothers and daughters bargain with unseen forces to wrest control over their fate.

Jump scares are not to be avoided Huesera instead relies on its protagonist’s interiority. The film is focused tightly on Valeria, and Natalia Solián carries the narrative burden with ease. While others fade around Valeria, she is the only one with an actual arc. The supporting characters serve mostly as reflections and foils. Solián’s performance is understated, and it quietly raises a terrifying question about parenthood — if having a child is faking it till you make it, what happens if you never stop faking it?

Image by XYZ Films

Huesera speaks in a language of breaking and setting, as rigid structures crack under pressure — the wood of sturdy furniture, the bones of an animal consumed for its flesh, the expectations of a mother-to-be. They are removed from their designated purpose by strong hands. These things are inalienable Huesera, Valeria is both a craftsperson’s hands and their medium: shrieking in agony as her bones are bent in ways they were not meant to, yet longing for the control to contort her life into a shape molded by her desires. Cervera has created a motherhood tale that asks: What tradition is the strongest? Is this the Catholic rigidity represented by a statue of Virgin Mary? What about the witchcraft committed by women who are held captive to such rigid Catholic ideals? Rebel punks? The body transforms when someone in transition is pulled in many different directions.

Huesera – The Bone WomanIs in Film release limited to theatersAvailable on VOD February 16th, with Shudder releases to follow.