The Bone Woman

It stars Natalia Solián as Valeria, a pregnant woman who finds herself threatened by occult forces. Alongside Solián, the film's cast includes Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla, Mercedes Hernández, Sonia Couoh and Aida López.

Huesera: The Bone Woman
American theatrical release poster
Spanish	Huesera
Directed by	Michelle Garza Cervera
Written by	Michelle Garza Cervera Abia Castillo
Produced by	Paulina Villavicencio Edher Campos
Starring	Natalia Solián Alfonso Dosal Mayra Batalla Mercedes Hernández Sonia Couoh Aida López
Cinematography	Nur Rubio Sherwell
Edited by	Adriana Martínez
Music by	Gibrán Androide Cabeza de Vaca
Production companies	Machete Disruptiva Films Maligno Gorehouse Señor Z
Distributed by	Cinépolis Distribución
Release dates	9 June 2022 (2022-06-09) (Tribeca) 23 February 2023 (2023-02-23) (Mexico)
Running time	93 minutes
Countries	Mexico Peru
Language	Spanish
Box office	$1.6 million

Huesera: The Bone Woman had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival on 9 June 2022 and won the Best New Narrative Director and Nora Ephron awards.

Valeria's joy of getting pregnant with her first child is quickly cut short when she is cursed by an evil spirit. As danger approaches and her relationships with her family fracture, she is forced into a chilling world of dark magic that threatens to consume her.

• Natalia Solián as Valeria
• Alfonso Dosal as Raúl, Valeria's husband
• Mayra Batalla as Octavia
• Mercedes Hernández as Isabel
• Aída López as Maricarmen, Valeria's mother
• Martha Claudia Moreno
• Sonia Couoh as Vero, Valeria's sister

Principal photography took place in Mexico City in 2021.

Huesera: The Bone Woman had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York on 9 June 2022, as part of the festival's "Midnight" section.

The film was set to receive a North American theatrical release by XYZ Films on 10 February 2023. It was scheduled to be released on the VOD platform Shudder on 16 February 2023.

Distributed by Cinépolis Distribución, it had its commercial premiere in Mexican theaters on 23 February 2023. It was then released in Peruvian theaters on 27 April 2023.

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 92 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "A bone-chilling body horror, Huesera offers genre fans a twisted take on What to Expect When You're Expecting." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Variety's Manuel Betancourt called Huesera "at times spine-chillingly terrifying," writing that it "rarely [resorts] to jump scares", relying instead on "increasingly disturbing imagery" and sound design. Betancourt concluded: "A fable of modern motherhood, of calcified feminist ideas about domesticity and women's agency, Huesera offers a Mexican folk-inspired spin on such horror classics as The Babadook, Hereditary, Rosemary's Baby and As Boas Maneiras." Natalia Winkelman of The New York Times commended Solian's performance, the film's shot composition and its themes, writing that the film "raises the provocative idea that motherhood can feel akin to a curse [...] the movie — like many great works of vision, scale be damned — is almost an exorcism itself, stripping away fuss and banalities to expose raw truths."

Michael Gingold of Rue Morgue wrote that the film "inverts the pregnancy-fear subgenre [...] while also paying off the expectations of a genre piece", and called the film "a singular achievement on the international horror scene." Meagan Navarro, in her review of the film for Bloody Disgusting, praised Garza Cervera's direction, writing that "her firm grasp of imagery and tension-building is focused and effective, using fear to engender sympathy with laser precision. Even if Valeria's denial puts her multiple steps behind the viewer, Cervera's strong debut sweeps you up in Valeria's nightmare regardless."

Accolades