Director: Michelle Garza Cervera
Year: 2022
Country: Mexico
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological
Plot:
After receiving news that she's pregnant, an expectant mother-to-be finds that the supposed joy of the news is met with scoff and ridicule from those around her at the disbelief that she can't go through with it and slowly comes undone by a demonic spirit and the pressure of motherhood bestowed upon her.
Review:
This was a fantastic genre effort that has quite a lot to like about it. One of the film's strongest aspects here is the incredibly deep and almost spiritual bent that gets featured here surrounding the occasion of motherhood. Rather than embrace the expected joy and pride at being able to follow through on her dreams of finally being a mother, this one goes to great lengths to make that something akin to mockery with everyone around her either ridiculing the announcement, reminding her of past indiscretions that signal otherwise or just straight up doubting her based on her past which those around her constantly bring up. This starts to affect her to the point of seriously believing their criticisms and taking the joy out of the prospective euphoria of motherhood which is a fine featured storyline.
That goes hand-in-hand with the films' generally unnerving horror scenes which are quite well handled throughout here. Already on edge and underwhelmed by the prospect of motherhood through everything else going on around her, the introduction of a mysterious, shadowy spirit that she can't see but can feel and experience the effects of its presence adds even more to the unworthy feelings she has. With her experiences being genuinely frightening including the attack in her house where it snaps her foot or the encounter with the neighbors while babysitting that results in no one believing her stories, there's a lot to go off here that is enhanced incredibly well with the finale featuring a series of incredibly brutal and harrowing experiences that ties together the folklore behind the being and her experience as a mother. These all bring quite a lot to the film and hold it up incredibly well.
There's not much that holds it back but it does have some minor flaws. Among its biggest detriments is the somewhat troubling series of events set up here to get the idea of her misappropriated motherhood desires. So much of this is based on warping the incidents to such a degree of absurdity that it feels like a parody of the formula more than anything with the outlandish means through which she's blamed for what's going on. Several of the scenarios are improbably embellished to feel like a parody of human interactions in the way she starts to feel anxious or pressured into following through on the pregnancy based on these interactions in the way they come off. That does go along somewhat with the lack of explanation regarding the main creature which is basically nameless in the film and has very little context with what she does, furthering the idea of everything happening in her mind quite easily. It's all that really brings this one down.
Overview: ****/5
A fantastic female-driven genre effort without too much to dislike about it, there’s so much to like here that it manages to remain highly impressive and enjoyable which is all quite effective. Those that are intrigued by this type of genre effort, are curious about the style of film or appreciate the approach taken by the film while most others that don’t like these factors should heed caution.
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