The groan of mother and child

At the box office – a film by Mexican Michelle Garza Cervera “Child of Darkness” (Huesera). Mikhail Trofimenkov I honestly tried, if not to get scared, then at least to have some fun watching this kind of horror movie.

Yes, what is this going on, O Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, in the world genre cinema. “Child of Darkness” is at least the tenth film in the Russian box office in a year in which children are the source of fear. Not yet born, but already turning the life of their parents into a hellish hell, or already ripe for the first menstruation. Existing only in the imagination of parents damaged by the mind or simply possessing paranormal abilities. Finnish Twin by Tameli Mustonen and Gnash by Hanna Bergholm. The Belgian-Irish “Vivarium” by Laurent Finnegan and the Mexican “Doll. The Last Curse by Henry Bedwell. Domestic “Detector” by Kostas Marsaan and “Medea” by Igor Voloshin.

During this year, children nursed bloodthirsty chicks in their beds and flattened mischievous classmates on the walls with the power of their gaze. They emitted an ultrasonic bark and communicated with the devils through the television screen. They sensed the presence of serial killers in the distance and clicked with melting ice teeth. Most of these films referenced horror cinema classics of the 1960s and 1970s in one way or another. First of all, Rosemary’s Baby (1968) by Roman Polanski and The Omen (1976) by Richard Donner. Michelle Garza Cervera is not shy about admitting she was just showing Rosemary’s Baby to the crew. But, even if we leave aside the secondary nature of modern films, there is something unhealthy, vicious in injecting horrors into the theme of children-parents. Shameful speculation on a tear of a child or his mother, to put it simply.

Having gone wild as a teenager, Valeria (Natalia Solan) seems to be graduating and finding simple Mexican womanly happiness. Loving husband Raul (Alfonso Dosal), who seems to work in the advertising business, the house is a full bowl. No worries: you can indulge in your favorite hobby – carpentry, you heard right, craft. True, it is not possible to get pregnant, but either the pilgrimage to the 33-meter statue of the same holy Virgin in Okuilan, or patience and work in bed are bearing fruit. Girl! They will have a girl!

It is not surprising that the pregnant Valeria is sick. Worse, the audience starts to feel sick after her. Once, looking out the window, the heroine sees a certain woman on the balcony of a neighboring house. Waving her hand to Valeria, she throws herself out of the window and, despite the collection of open fractures, quickly crawls along the asphalt of the yard.

From that moment on, the traumatized “essence”, as such monsters are called in Voloshin’s “Medea”, subjugates the imagination of the expectant mother. Dashing down the stairwell, lurking under the bed and generally allows himself the devil knows what. In retelling, this may sound quite exciting, but, alas, not in screen reality.

Rare and beggarly special effects do not manage to dilute the lingering boredom of the story. In Natalia Solan, whether she portrays happiness or horror, her facial expression does not change at all. It seems that the girl is heroically trying to swallow a bitter lemon. Just as monotonous is Alfonso Dosal, and all the actors who portray the relatives of the heroes and differ from each other only in a degree of vulgar viciousness.

What exactly is the movie about? About the fact that Catholicism and ancient pagan cults are inextricably intertwined in Mexico? Suppose, although this is not a revelation, but a hackneyed truth. It is no coincidence that the action begins in Okuilan, where girls who want to get pregnant should crawl on their knees the last hundred meters of a giant staircase of 640 steps. And it ends in the lair of sorceresses, who, having led the heroine through a certain ritual, are capable of ridding her of demons.

The lair, by the way, is perhaps the only thing that can sincerely amuse the audience of “Child of Darkness”. On the screen – a kind of communal kitchen, where they sit in anticipation of obsessed with devils clients aunt-tattered in greasy dressing gowns. Nearby, murky children play with slot machines. There is a rug on the wall, it’s good that it’s not with swans, but with herons. On the tired refrigerator is a china dog. On the windowsill are rows of bottles. Having sniffed Valeria, the aunts come to the conclusion that she “caught an infection”, fumigate her with something and send her on a supposedly boring mystical trip.

Than watching “Child of Darkness”, it is more interesting to read highbrow interpretations of the film. One can learn from them that it is dedicated to the “harmful influence of gender socialization” either on the heroine, or on the “crowding out” of her “labor identity”, which means the carpentry hobby. Well, or – there is at least some sense in this – that Valeria paid with nightmares for betraying her organic orientation. Since childhood, she was drawn to her brutal friend Octavia, but it did not grow together, and she had to play the role of wife and mother.

All this is from the evil one. In fact, “Child of Darkness” has nothing to do with genre cinema or queer issues. This is just a manual on prenatal and postnatal depression, and it is worth showing it not in cinemas, but at continuing education courses for medical workers.