Halloween is just around the corner, which means that cinemas and streaming services are flooding the market with a load of scary movies. With so many choices, it can be hard to know where to direct your attention, but the collaboration between Amazon and Blumhouse has you covered. The partnership began last year with their series of feature films released under the banner ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’, and has returned with a second crop of four spooky movies. All four are available to watch now and range from teen vampire slaying (Black as Night), demonic pacts (Bingo Hell), and an eerie residential home (The Manor).
Rounding out the 2021 line-up is Madres, a bi-lingual ghost story set in the seventies. Directed by Ryan Zaragoza, the story joins married couple Diana (Ariana Guerra) and Beto (Tenoch Huerta), a young Mexican-American couple expecting their first child. The pair move to a small town in Northern California where Beto has been offered a job managing a farm. Isolated from the community and plagued by ominous nightmares, Diana explores the rundown company ranch where she and Beto live, and finds a grisly talisman and a box containing the belongings of the previous residents. Her discoveries will lead her to a truth much stranger and more terrifying than she could have possibly imagined.
As compelling as the supernatural elements of Madres are, it is its real-life inspiration that really causes the chills. Madres’ grounding in fact adds an additional layer of horror that permeates and lingers long after viewing. With such an important message to tell, one can only hope that as well as being entertained, the viewer finds themselves informed. Incredibly, Madres is only Zaragoza’s first feature film. In the lead up to the film’s release, we spoke with the new director to discuss the project in further detail.
Madres is available to watch now on Amazon Prime.
