Title: The Old Ways
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Christopher Alender
Starring: Brigette Kali Canales, Andrea Cortes, Julia Vera
Runtime: 1 hr 30 mins

What It Is: In order to report on a story she’s doing about a cave apparently inhabited by evil spirits in Mexico, Christina finds herself kidnapped by a pair of quiet and mysterious villagers who intend to clear off her demons–literally. Claiming that she is possessed by “La Boca,” they perform daily rituals on Christina who struggles with her identity as she survives the oncoming terrors that seem to be channeling through her.

What We Think: Kicking off with an absolute bang, this horror flick showcases an ability to juggle confrontational subject matter, a buffet of exorcisms, and entertainment without crossing the line into immediately silly or campy. While strange and unpredictable from the start, the progression of the story is fascinating, the allegory obvious but nonetheless a fun time, similar to that of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead or Drag Me to Hell. The acting was fantastic, namely on the shoulders of our lead Canales who delivers strength, likability, and relatability to her character. The filming was consistently exciting and interesting. The settings and production design atmospheric if not full of the character themselves. The plot, though winding and may drag on for some viewers still maintained the sense of adventure to the point of leaving you to feel a little tired in the end, in an achieved sense. The gore was delicious, making the likes of sickos like me gag. The premise is crazy and absurd; in turn, the events don’t hold back that absurdity and go pretty balls-to-the-wall insane in giving us demonic horrors. That also being said, the creature design was really on point, though not essentially scary, believable, and intimidating in the sense that they might be based on real entities.

Our Grade: B+, So much fucking fun to watch, I can’t say it enough. I would love to watch this again with a group of friends–it’s one of those horror movies. Here you can be promised enough scares, blood, guts, demons, and more than enough exorcisms to last you until the next Halloween. The majority of it is unrelenting and grows on you the longer the duration goes on, a bang-for-your-buck. I’ll look back on this viewing experience with a tickled fondness.