In her feature length debut, director Michelle Garza Cervera proves she knows how to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. In an early scene, Huesera’s lead, Valeria (Natalia Solián), has just found out she’s finally pregnant after much trying with her husband, Raul (Alfonso Dosal). In a moment of calm, she stares at the balcony across the street from hers. A faceless woman seemingly stares back, and then all manner of unnatural body movements send Valeria running back inside.
On paper, nothing here hasn’t been done before in the horror lexicon, but Cervera stuns in her craft. The scene is slow, strange, and uneasy. Solián is utterly convincing. The foley artists ensure every turn of an elbow makes you wince. At its scariest, the Mexico-set Huesera doesn’t try to bend the rules. It’s merely perfected them. Guided by Cervera’s assured hand, the film often achieves a squirmy, gets-under-your-skin kind of horror.
The first half of the film is masterful as Valeria’s pregnancy threatens to destroy both her body and mind. Part of that success comes from how the script rips every safety net away from her. After a babysitting incident gone wrong in her youth, just about every one of Valeria’s family members tease her and verbally declare her an unfit mother. Her husband, meanwhile, is incapable of making her feel safe when she does see something creepy and crawly, growing angry and tossing blame. Valeria is effectively alone, something Solián communicates with a startling vulnerability that elevates her from generic scream queen to a cheer-worthy protagonist.
A flashback about midway through reveals Valeria’s more rebellious youthful spirit, not to mention that she goes for women as well as men. Back in the present, she visits a female lover from her teenage years and gets a look at the less scrutinous life she’s been missing out on. Here on out, Huesera doesn’t know how to consistently ramp up the scares, but it does morph into this visceral cautionary tale of traditional domesticity. Rosemary’s Baby comparisons are inevitable, but they do a disservice to what Huesera is trying to be. Scary and disturbing as it may be, this is a film about a woman trying to pick up the pieces and find a way forward, no matter how much is against her.
At just over 90 minutes, even when the horror isn’t as effective, the film still keeps things moving. It loses steam in the second half, but not enough to render its rousing finale a bore. Valeria’s story still rings true throughout the film’s occasional pacing issues.
The film doesn’t always work, as its horror remains stagnant after its stunning first half. And yet, flaws and all, the film boasts an inescapable energy and genuine pathos so many horror films fail to maintain. With them, Cervera comes roaring into the scene as a force to be reckoned with. Few directorial debuts are as confident, thoughtful, and well-executed as Huesera.
