What’s up! I’m Marlon, and this is Ulven Reviews: movies and series from all over the world.
Today let’s talk about the 2021 Not-Really-A-Horror Movie Madres, directed by Ryan Zaragoza.
Diana (played by Ariana Guerra) and Beto (played by Tenoch Huerta) are expecting their first child when they move to a rural town in California for Beto’s new job on a farm.
Soon after, Diana begins to show strange symptoms like skin rashes and visions. Some think it’s a curse that hit pregnant Mexican women, ultimately leading to abortion and sometimes even the mother’s death.
Not believing the superstition, she decides to investigate what might be causing the symptoms before it’s too late for her baby and herself.
This one is the last of the year, obviously! There’s not even time for another one, but here we go: Madres!
I always watch these True Crime Murder Shows from Discovery ID. One of them is Swamp Murders, and I watched an episode fairly recently featuring Ariana Guerra, so I began to follow her on Instagram like I usually do with most actors and actresses that I see on things.
I follow more than five thousand profiles on Instagram and most of them are actors and actresses. By the way, you can follow us there on Ulven Reviews. I’ll be waiting!
Anyway, back to Ariana Guerra, it was on her profile that I saw the poster of the movie Madres. So, I realized Tenoch Huerta was starring it as well. I like Tenoch Huerta from Narcos.
And that’s how I decided to watch it, and without being a cunt, I wasn’t expecting shit. I just wanted to watch something with people I liked in it. So I did, and I loved it.
“Oh, but it wasn’t horror enough!”
The movie has less than five stars on IMDb, it’s fucking ridiculous. Some whiny motherf*ckers would rate Citizen Kane one star if it wasn’t tagged the right way or if he was produced by a company of another genre. Eat sh*t!
The movie really isn’t a horror, and I don’t see any problems at all with that. If it was advertised only as horror there’s a problem with the advertising, not with the movie.
Handling your expectations based on advertisement is not a problem of the movie or the filmmakers or anyone involved in it (besides the marketing, of course) that’s YOUR problem.
So, the film is more of a suspenseful thriller with minor supernatural elements… maybe… and some very small scares.
The movie is said to be based on a real story, but it’s not really like that. It’s a fictitious story based on events of history, more specifically the forced sterilization of the Latino population in the USA.
This type of thing happened in the USA since the 1880s…
So, I was reading into it, and actually, the term eugenics was created in the 1880s, but the U.S. only began using eugenic tactics in the 1900s.
… and is still going. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (known as ICE) has several accusations of forced sterilization of immigrant women in the cages they keep ‘em in. And these accusations come from the women themselves, and from whistleblowers.
So, a technique that most people would think could only happen in Nazi Germany, happens in Biden’s u.s right.
Now, by the way, did you know that the USA was a big inspiration for Hitler’s ideas, for his idea of Nazi Germany. He said it himself in Mein Kampf. I’ll link some sources in the description, but we can talk about that in another day.
Today, let’s get back to our focus.
The fact that ICE uses forced sterilization to this day, shows that despite the movie being set in the late 70s, this subject is still very relevant. Not only that, but it’s a compelling story, as well.
I love investigation stories, and I think Madres did a fine job at that. I was invested in the story until the very end.
But it was not all roses. Some aspects of the story weren’t very well developed, for example, Diana’s relationship with her mother. You can see there’s something there, but it’s never further explored.
The main couple is just a regular, very normal couple, and that’s what makes them interesting. They are relatable at the highest level, they could be any one of us, or our family members, or our friends. Imagine the couple next door being a victim of genocide, literally.
One of the best things about the movie was Ariana Guerra’s performance, she’s really remarkable and flawless. I really like to see her career take off to even higher places. I absolutely loved her performance.
Another remarkable thing I loved were the costumes and settings, that put us in the late 70s with perfection. And the cinematography completes the absolutely gorgeous visual of the movie. I loved everything about the cinematography.
Now, going down the hill, we have the score. Another just boring, generic score. Unremarkable.
Madres is a great and highly underestimated movie, mostly because it’s not as “horror” as people expected. It has an outstanding performance, a theme relevant for our times, and a compelling enough story. I’ll give Madres 8 Moons!
That’s it for now. Once again, I encourage you to like, subscribe, comment, and share it with friends, acquaintances, and enemies. Some suggested videos will appear on the screen in a bit, you might give those ones some attention to, if you like.
Sources:
California Once Targeted Latinas for Forced Sterilization
Eugenics and the Nazis — the California connection
More immigrant women say they were abused by Ice gynecologist
ICE is accused of sterilizing detainees
ICE, A Whistleblower And Forced Sterilization
The United States — A Model for the Nazis
Dos Ratos 