REVIEW: The Old Ways

The Old Ways

Rating: B-

Premiering at this year’s Sitges Film Festival is Christopher Alender's new film THE OLD WAYS. This film takes us into the dark and dangerous world of Mexican witchcraft and faith healers. The movie centers around Cristina, a young reporter who travels to Veracruz to cover a story and unexpectedly finds herself taken by a local “bruja” and her son. Why do they take her? Because they believe she has a demon inside her and will not let her leave until they exorcise the evil force from her at any cost. What initially starts as what Cristina believes to be a kidnapping slowly turns into a fight for her very soul as the things, she thought were just stories prove to be more than just a little real.

This film is pretty short and sweet in its story telling. It wastes no time throwing you right into the middle of everything. Cristina, played by Brigitte Kali Canales, basically begins the film already in captivity. The Bruja (Julia Vera) and her son Javi (Sal Lopez) are already to begin the process of removing the demon from her and saving her soul. The only person Cristina can look to for help is a distant family member who she was to meet down in Veracruz Miranda (Andrea Cortes), but much to Cristina’s dismay Miranda is a believer in the old ways and feels like the Bruja must complete her job to save Cristina. This film feels like a crash course in Hispanic mythology and witchcraft. We see lots of imagery and rituals that immerse the viewers in these ancient practices that funny enough are still done to this day in some parts of the world. The film itself is ultimately about confronting your inner demons both literally and metaphorically. It is also a clashing of the old world and the new. Despite Cristina’s resistance to believing she is possessed by demons we see her flashing back to a time when she was younger, and her own mother was undergoing an exorcism. Despite seeing some pretty scary and incredible things firsthand she still has trouble buying into the idea that evil spirits can reside in a person. She denies it until she can’t.

The film’s cast brings us some solid acting throughout the film. They all play their roles pretty well. There are times that the story does get a little campy but for the most part they try their best to remain serious to the subject matter. It was an entertaining indie film that definitely stands out better than many other films that have tried to take on this subject matter. I do wish they had given us just a slight better lead into the story. Like I said aside from a flashback to her mom’s exorcism we pretty much start the film with Cristina locked in a room and very little back story as to what events led up to her being captured and declared to have a demon in her. We get little snippets of that as the movie progresses, but I feel like that would have made for a more immersive experience overall. I also feel like it would help us to care more about Cristina if we had a better feel for where she comes from and why she is doing what she is doing. The film ends on almost the same note that it starts on which still leaves me with more questions than answers.

Overall, we scored The Old Ways with a B-. During this time of year these are the type of films I crave to watch. Bring on all the spooky, creepy, and dark flicks you can find because I am here for that during October and The Old Ways fit into that nicely. It is not a perfect film, but it was still fun plunging into the dark world of witchcraft and seeing where the ride takes you. If Mexican witchcraft is your thing you definitely need to look up The Old Ways and give it a watch.