… but you did it anyway.
How often does that happen in horror films? All the time!
People ignoring other people’s advice is perhaps the genre’s most common trope of all. Why do writers still use it over and over again?
The answer is simple: Because it works! We all know, we humans are prone to always do the things, we oughtn’t do and we love to see others run into peril, from the safety of our couches.
The 2020 film The Old Ways is no exception. It uses many elements, we have already seen in other movies: The urgent warnings, the beautiful protagonist, demons, ancestral magic, exotic settings, exorcism and other and yet: It works surprisingly well, perhaps because it doesn’t rely on other typical ingredients of modern film making, like excessive scare jumps, exaggerated splatter elements, too many digital effects (there are some, but well used) and long explanations.
With only two locations and a handful of actors, it tells the story of Cristina López (Brigitte Kali Canales) as she fights a daemon in the Mexican jungle who has taken possesion of her. Fortunately, she hasn’t got to do it on her own. Her journey into the mysteries of indigenious wisdom and magic is a nail biting one and has numerous surprises for the viewer.
This film shows brilliantly, how to tell a compelling story on a tight budget in our time oversaturated with productions, which aim to replace imagination with effects.
It’s not flawless, though: The connection of the unfolding events with Cristina’s backstory is flimsy and not too convincing. For us viewers, it’s not a problem, as the film does not dwell to deep into those and we can watch her going into truly dark places, with quite a number of intelligent and unexpected plot twists.
This film gets 3.5 stars from me.
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