A Mexican-American journalist returns to her childhood home, where she is
abducted and subjected to an exorcism.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christopher Alender
Starring: Brigitte Kali Canales, Andrea Cortés, Julia Vera, Sal Lopez, AJ
Bowen
Is there a more redundant horror sub-genre than the exorcism movie?
William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin laid out the template in such
definitive fashion that in the decades since The Exorcist, horror filmmakers have struggled to find a way to invigorate this
format with new ideas. We've seen exorcism movies branch out to
non-Catholic cultures, but whether it's Judaism, Islam or Shamanism,
they all amount to essentially the same thing – a young woman strapped
down in a room while priests, rabbis, witch-doctors etc splash holy
water around and read passages from whatever ancient text is relevant to
their creed.
Director Christopher Alender's exorcism movie
The Old Ways does admittedly offer us something I don’t
recall coming across in the sub-genre before. Taking its cues from the
likes of Polanski's Death and the Maiden, 1971's Revenge, and recent thrillers like Big Bad Wolves and
#Like, it's an exorcism riff on the idea of someone being held captive while
accused of a crime they may or may not be guilty of committing. In this
case it's not a crime, but rather a woman is held in a room by those who
believe she is possessed by a demon.
The woman in question is Cristina (Brigitte Kali Canales), a
Mexican-American journalist who left Mexico as a child when her mother
died during an apparently unsuccessful exorcism. Returning to her
birthplace to chase up a story, Cristina is warned by her childhood
friend Miranda (Andrea Cortés) to stay away from a nearby cave
named "La Boca", but like any reporter with ink in her veins, Cristina
sets off for the cave, only to collapse and wake up in chains in a small
room.
Local witch Luz (Julia Vera) and her son Javi (Sal Lopez)
are convinced that Cristina is possessed by the same demon that claimed
her mother's soul and are determined to perform an exorcism. We're
initially kept guessing as to whether Cristina is genuinely possessed or
whether she's an unfortunate victim of superstitious fanaticism. Of
course, this being a horror movie, we know going in which way this is
all going to turn out, which nullifies any possible tension from this
scenario.
Alender and screenwriter Marcos Gabriel awkwardly bring their
subtext to the surface by making Cristina a heroin addict and hammering
home the idea of exorcism as intervention. Hammy as this idea is, we
never for a minute believe that the improbably healthy Canales is a
smackhead. Her enviably toned body is suspiciously absent of train
tracks, she never seems to go into withdrawal, and she looks like she
gets at least eight hours sleep every night, despite her editor (AJ Bowen) complaining that she's burning the candle at both ends.
Alender and Gabriel try to freshen things up by adding a dash of
identity politics as the very Americanised Cristina initially dismisses
her captors as primitive yokels, only to gradually embrace the "old
ways" she left behind as a child. But ironically, their film just
reinforces tired stereotypes about Latin America.
