It’s hard to like a movie when it pulls a complete genre rope-a-dope on you. When it has to lie to tell its story, regardless of how important that story is. But I’m sure they used this horror movie Trojan Horse to get people to watch a movie with a message with all good intention. But it hurt my enjoyment of the film when I was so actively annoyed at the con job.

Madres is about a pregnant Mexican American couple in the 70s who moves to get a new farming community. Soon their new house seems to be haunted, possibly by its previous owner… and the locals are sure there’s a curse. They keep trying to force traditional medicines on the wife who doesn’t believe in it. But she soon learns the dark secrets of the town.

It’s tough to talk about what’s wrong with this movie since it has two or three story twists and I don’t want to spoil them. Suffice it to say, the film pretends to be a ghost story and reveals its more of a injustice crusade… except it still wants to be a ghost story. But it seems like the ghost story and the reason for the crusade both can’t be true. And then I went in circles getting more and more annoyed that the movie thinks it had to trick me to watch it. And then it pulls another card and it’s about something else entirely. And maybe there are ghosts.

I’d say this isn’t a ghost story but it is still a horror story. A pregnancy horror story that starts out as one thing, turns into another, and then a final thing… but all those things are legitimate pregnancy worries. So even while it’s faking out the audience, the core of its pregnancy horror remains solid.

The film’s ultimate tone of foreboding is also well done, regardless of what we’re supposed to be scared about. There’s some effective suspense and chills in the flick.

Ugh. This is a terrible review. I can’t say what the real problem with the movie is… and, if I did, it’d probably come across as a net positive for what this movie is really about. And I can’t argue that… but I think it’s wrong for them to pull a fast one. But I can’t hate the movie too much… it’s still well made and, I suppose, props for a surprise ending?

Score: 76