Per Matt
A Spanish-flavored horror film? Welcome to the Blumhouse brings some variety with the Season 2 release, Madres!
Small-town life can be scary, despite the timeline. But when you’re a Mexican-American couple moving into a new area, while being haunted by a supernatural nightmare, every-day life can be incredibly intolerable. This tale, which was “inspired by true events,” brings so many fears of first-time parents to light, as the dangerous warning signs are many in this film.
Golden Valley is a scary place for these newlyweds, as no crops have been recently harvested and no newborns have recently been delivered in this small town. As the very first member of his family tree to be named a manager, Beto (played by Tenoch Huerta) is working hard for his soon-to-be newborn. Diana (Ariana Guera) is ostracized within this new community for not speaking Spanish, even though her family is of Latin descent (she never learned the language because her parents were punished for primarily speaking it years ago).
There’s an underlying evil that finally makes its presence felt one hour into the movie (much like all the other Welcome to the Blumhouse releases). What’s the hook? Once the nice female craft vendor proclaims, “You need protection,” I’m already sucked into the backstory. But learning about a curse at the maternity clinic? This movie grabs my attention even more. What about the severed eyeballs hanging in a nearby tree or the rumors of the witch lady? Yas! I’m paying full attention, already!
“It’s very important for new mothers to be protected…”
Noir storylines are really the only ones that should have slow-to-develop scripts, while keeping the creep-factor high. Madres has a Rosemary’s Baby vibe, which I absolutely love! Is it a neo noir storyline? Yes. Does it have paranormal elements that make it creepy? Absolutely! And what about conspiracy elements? You better believe it! Madres has all of the above!
Ghosts of poisons past haunt this film, as a pending doom is looming in our heroes’ future, even though the protagonists have no idea how to combat it.
From the outset, I didn’t expect to be drawn into Madres as much as I did. With each new discovery by our heroes, the viewer learns a little more about the town’s backstory. So, why did I STILL want to learn more about the small town once the story had ended? Because the narrative built up its supernatural theme… then swerved into another direction with a cop-out conclusion.
I really felt the vibes of Rosemary’s Baby with this film; however, its actual conclusion was nowhere close to that groundbreaking movie. Madres offered some creepy moments, but its conclusion was a tad too anticlimactic. For a Welcome to the Blumhouse release, it was much better than each of the first season’s releases, but in terms of quality genre entertainment, the storytelling still needs to improve quite a bit.
As a fan of the Blumhouse banner and its house of horrors, I liked this film, but it definitely could have been better. Madres is a nice movie to stream on Amazon Prime Video for Halloween, while you’re trying to get started with the spooky season.