Story of a woman who has long dreamed about becoming a mother. After learning that she’s pregnant, she expects to feel happy, yet something’s off. A film by Michelle Garza Cervera, starring Natalia Solián, Alfonso Dosal, Aida López, and Sonia Couoh.

A film inspired by Mexican folklore about an elderly woman who lives in a hidden place that everyone has heard about but only a few have seen and lived to tell the tale. Some say she lives among the rotten granite slopes in Rarámuri territory. She searches and collects all sort of bones to assemble the skeletons of long-forgotten creatures. She then sings to it until it comes to life and transforms into a woman. The elderly woman is known by many names: La Loba (The Wolf Woman), La Trapera (The Gatherer) and La Huesera (The Bone Woman).

The Rarámuri or Tarahumara is a group of Indigenous people of the Americas living in the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. They are renowned for their long-distance running ability. Originally, inhabitants of much of Chihuahua, the Rarámuri retreated to the high sierras and canyons such as the Copper Canyon in the Sierra Madre Occidental on the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the 16th century.

Valeria (Natalia Solián) becomes pregnant for the first time. It’s what Valeria and her husband Raúl (Alfonso Dosal had always wanted, or so she believes. Valeria is a skilled woodworker, and she even has a workshop in her apartment, so she builds a cradle for the baby herself.

We learn more about Valeria as the couple pays a visit to her parents on Mother’s Day. Her mother Maricarmen (Aida López) and her older sister Vero Sonia Couoh) do not believe she has what it takes to be a good mother. However, when they tell her about their trouble finding a babysitter for Vero’s children for the upcoming party event, she offers to look after the youngsters. Her mother and sister are concerned about her ability to handle it, then they make fun of her for an accident in which she dropped a neighbor’s baby many years ago.

The doctor advises her to stop all carpentry work since the chemicals can harm the baby while she is pregnant. As time goes by, her frustration grows stronger. One night, she is shocked when she sees a woman jumping off the balcony opposite her building. Valeria quickly runs inside to grab Raúl, but the body of the mysterious woman has already vanished.

Valeria believes she is being followed by an evil entity that causes her to experience terrifying images and forces her to do horrible things. But does the evil spirit actually exist? Or it’s just all made up in her mind because she can’t cope with the pressure from her family and society?

A directorial debut from Mexican filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera which she co-wrote the script with Mexican screenwriter Abia Castillo. HUESERA is an intriguing psychological thriller rather than a typical horror film. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but it also confuses us because there’s no definitive beginning or end.

Every decision made by the protagonist is mind-boggling. And, in the end, it feel like she finally wakes up from a long nightmare and decides to be true to herself, even if her actions are regarded socially irresponsible.

Jump scare tactics are used to create the illusion of an evil entity, though it never actually does harm to anyone. We don’t get the answer why the entity follows her in the first place. Is she cursed? The film never explains the ritual, why it’s dangerous or how it can break her curse.

HUESERA premiered at the Tribeca Festival on 9 June 2022. The film had its limited theatrical release in the United States on 10 February 2023 by XYZ Films, and later made available on Shudder on 16 February. The film was also theatrically released in Mexico on 23 February by Cinépolis Distribución.