Release date: 2022
Contains spoilers
Vampiric witches, you have to love ‘em and these ones hail from Mexico. I saw this film, which they find themselves in, at Grimmfest and whilst it isn’t perfect, it does have a lot going for it, with a primarily female cast and a setting that just drips atmosphere and a sense of the uncanny and just-out-of-touch repressed memories. This is one that summons, what my pal Simon Bacon might describe as, undead memories.
The film starts off, in a forest and with a story – it is a story that is told through the film of triplets who happen to be at an encampment. One of them falls and it is before an old, swaddled woman – she seems an archetypal hag and this is fitting within the lore of the film. The girl stands and the woman reaches out, deftly releasing and taking a ribbon from her hair. The story narrator says that sometimes, when you are in view, evil turns its gaze towards you.
A noise and a small girl, Luna (Ivanna Sofia Ferro), is fitting. Her parents, Rebecca (Samantha Castillo) and Guillermo (Arap Bethke) rush in and push a syringe into a device on her back that is emitting an alarm and flashing a warning light. As the injection takes hold the light turns green – it is her third attack that week. Her older sister, Nala (Paola Miguel), is annoyed, it seems, at the attention the younger sibling gets. When the doctor visits he suggests that her organs are failing and that she should be in hospital now.
Rebecca and Guillermo disagree on the next course of action. He wants to move her to the hospital but she wants to go out to her family as she believes there is an alternative treatment. Rebecca wins the argument, much to Nala’s discontent as she doesn’t want to go. We discover, before they leave, that many of the children in the apartment complex have been ill and it is later described as an epidemic. The drive is incredibly long, the city left far behind.
At the family home they meet Josefa (Ofelia Medina), family matriarch who Guillermo and the children have never met. It is clear there is discontent between Josefa and Rebecca. Nala is devastated to discover that there is no wifi or phone signal – she still spends a large amount of time on her phone, presumably packed with offline apps. Also at the house are Abigail (Paloma Alvamar), the young housemaid, and her boyfriend Pedro (Mauro González), the handyman. They live in a cabin nearby and Nala clearly takes a shine to Pedro.
Abigail starts telling the girls a local legend – that is the story of the triplets. The story goes on to say that the hag was indeed a witch and witches suck the blood of children to steal their youth. This caused the one triplet to start becoming ill. The others realise what is happening and put scissors beneath the mattress as this should ward off a witch, but it doesn’t work and so they go to a sorceress in the forest – who interestingly is listed as being from the Caribbean and this is an area where the vampiric old hag folklore is highly prevalent. She teaches them how to make a Bacá – a magical creature that can grant wishes but also bring misfortune to those who make a wish.
There is much more to the tale of the triplets, which I won’t spoil. As it is, mom and dad go off to find the alternative cure leaving the girls with Josefa. Nala is a bit of a brat (but, as the film progresses we do see she genuinely loves her sister) but the treatment by Josefa is essentially abusive. In return Nala becomes convinced that Josefa is a witch and is sucking Luna’s blood at night.
Lore-wise we have a really interesting mixed bag. I have mentioned the scissors and the blood drinking. Witches will also shed their skin to hunt, storing it in a pumpkin. This reminded me of some of the Southeast Asian lore, which more often sees the body detach but the left body part becomes a weakness as the skin does here. More so it is identical to the Caribbean soucouyant, or Old Hag—an aged woman by day who sheds her skin when hunting blood. Salt is deadly to the witch and rubbed inside the shed skin will burn and kill the witch. That Caribbean connection is enhanced with a view of a ritual late into the film that looks like it originates from that area.
It is, however, the atmosphere in this that got me. The house just feels so unheimlich and we get much that points to repressed memory and also a clash between modern and old fashioned. The story itself, whilst the film does its best to obfuscate at times, is pretty easy to work out and I found myself waiting to see it pan out the way I predicted, rather than work out what happened. I mentioned Nala being a brat, but that is deliberate and the child actors deliver what is needed. Ofelia Medina is fabulous as the demented matriarch. I did enjoy this one, 6.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
Vampiric witches, you have to love ‘em and these ones hail from Mexico. I saw this film, which they find themselves in, at Grimmfest and whilst it isn’t perfect, it does have a lot going for it, with a primarily female cast and a setting that just drips atmosphere and a sense of the uncanny and just-out-of-touch repressed memories. This is one that summons, what my pal Simon Bacon might describe as, undead memories.
The film starts off, in a forest and with a story – it is a story that is told through the film of triplets who happen to be at an encampment. One of them falls and it is before an old, swaddled woman – she seems an archetypal hag and this is fitting within the lore of the film. The girl stands and the woman reaches out, deftly releasing and taking a ribbon from her hair. The story narrator says that sometimes, when you are in view, evil turns its gaze towards you.
 |
| curing the fit |
A noise and a small girl, Luna (Ivanna Sofia Ferro), is fitting. Her parents, Rebecca (Samantha Castillo) and Guillermo (Arap Bethke) rush in and push a syringe into a device on her back that is emitting an alarm and flashing a warning light. As the injection takes hold the light turns green – it is her third attack that week. Her older sister, Nala (Paola Miguel), is annoyed, it seems, at the attention the younger sibling gets. When the doctor visits he suggests that her organs are failing and that she should be in hospital now.
 |
| Guillermo and Rebecca |
Rebecca and Guillermo disagree on the next course of action. He wants to move her to the hospital but she wants to go out to her family as she believes there is an alternative treatment. Rebecca wins the argument, much to Nala’s discontent as she doesn’t want to go. We discover, before they leave, that many of the children in the apartment complex have been ill and it is later described as an epidemic. The drive is incredibly long, the city left far behind.
 |
| Ofelia Medina as Josefa |
At the family home they meet Josefa (Ofelia Medina), family matriarch who Guillermo and the children have never met. It is clear there is discontent between Josefa and Rebecca. Nala is devastated to discover that there is no wifi or phone signal – she still spends a large amount of time on her phone, presumably packed with offline apps. Also at the house are Abigail (Paloma Alvamar), the young housemaid, and her boyfriend Pedro (Mauro González), the handyman. They live in a cabin nearby and Nala clearly takes a shine to Pedro.
 |
| the hag |
Abigail starts telling the girls a local legend – that is the story of the triplets. The story goes on to say that the hag was indeed a witch and witches suck the blood of children to steal their youth. This caused the one triplet to start becoming ill. The others realise what is happening and put scissors beneath the mattress as this should ward off a witch, but it doesn’t work and so they go to a sorceress in the forest – who interestingly is listed as being from the Caribbean and this is an area where the vampiric old hag folklore is highly prevalent. She teaches them how to make a Bacá – a magical creature that can grant wishes but also bring misfortune to those who make a wish.
 |
| Luna and Nala |
There is much more to the tale of the triplets, which I won’t spoil. As it is, mom and dad go off to find the alternative cure leaving the girls with Josefa. Nala is a bit of a brat (but, as the film progresses we do see she genuinely loves her sister) but the treatment by Josefa is essentially abusive. In return Nala becomes convinced that Josefa is a witch and is sucking Luna’s blood at night.
 |
| skinless |
Lore-wise we have a really interesting mixed bag. I have mentioned the scissors and the blood drinking. Witches will also shed their skin to hunt, storing it in a pumpkin. This reminded me of some of the Southeast Asian lore, which more often sees the body detach but the left body part becomes a weakness as the skin does here. More so it is identical to the Caribbean soucouyant, or Old Hag—an aged woman by day who sheds her skin when hunting blood. Salt is deadly to the witch and rubbed inside the shed skin will burn and kill the witch. That Caribbean connection is enhanced with a view of a ritual late into the film that looks like it originates from that area.
 |
| drink blood |
It is, however, the atmosphere in this that got me. The house just feels so unheimlich and we get much that points to repressed memory and also a clash between modern and old fashioned. The story itself, whilst the film does its best to obfuscate at times, is pretty easy to work out and I found myself waiting to see it pan out the way I predicted, rather than work out what happened. I mentioned Nala being a brat, but that is deliberate and the child actors deliver what is needed. Ofelia Medina is fabulous as the demented matriarch. I did enjoy this one, 6.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
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