By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Christopher Alender
Starring: AJ Bowen | Andrea Cortés | Brigitte Kali Canales | Julia Vera | Sal Lopez | Weston Meredith
Country: united_states
Year: 2021
Running time: 90
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12829958/reference
Brett says: “This is a tale of possession lodged in brujeria lore in which protagonist Cristina is discovered by locals after visiting to report on local tribal customs in an isolated region of Veracruz. Immediately, she is taken into custody by a family steeped in ancestral traditions and held against her will. The cause for her detainment: a local bruja (witch) has mystical reason to believe that Cristina is possessed.
“The interesting thing about this story comes in the fact that Cristina vehemently rejects the notion that she is under any kind of influence at first, as any similar subject would in the tradition of possession films; however, the unique narrative direction in a film like this is that the protagonist comes to realizations about herself and her state and joins in allegiance with her apparent antagonists to combat the otherworldly forces in question instead of being the subject of targeting the whole time.
“Aside from the demonic possession itself, the film also features Cristina’s personal demons as a root cause of her trajectory toward landing in this predicament as the story unfolds. This serves as an effective subplot looming in the darkness along with the demon itself.
“There is a high attention to detail in the production design and effects featured throughout the film. Not only is there plenty of hide-under-the-covers visual imagery, the story is carefully tiled with purpose in those visual images throughout.
“All in all, this is a tale that will appeal to fans of exotic possession sub-genre in that it offers some approaches we haven’t yet seen before in this kind of film. One final benefit to the film is that it doesn’t fall into the trap of explaining everything away prematurely. While there are notable horror tropes and conventional storytelling tactics that keep the film from reaching ‘next level’ effectiveness overall, horror audiences will appreciate much of the film’s direction and attention to their horror needs. 3 black cats
“Screened at the Chattanooga Film Festival”