Madres 2021

The film tells the gripping tale of Diana and Beto, a young Mexican-American couple, who move to an isolated farming town in rural California during the 1970s. Excited about a new beginning, especially with Diana expecting their first child, Beto, played by Tenoch Huerta, takes up a management position at a farm. However, from the moment they arrive, Diana feels an unsettling anxiety; their new home is old and creaky, filled with bizarre symbols and foreboding artifacts, including a doll that she discovers buried in the backyard.

As they settle in, Diana becomes plagued by terrifying hallucinations and unsettling visions that disrupt her sense of safety. She hears disembodied whispers, witnesses shadows darting in the dark, and suffers from nightmarish dreams populated by faceless women screaming in anguish. Her physical health also declines, as she develops alarming rashes on her stomach and arms, experiences severe stomach cramps, and begins bleeding, prompting her to seek help. Unfortunately, the local doctor, portrayed by Robert Larriviere, dismisses her symptoms as stress related to her pregnancy, leaving Diana with a gnawing feeling that something is terribly wrong.

Determined to uncover the truth, Diana investigates the town’s dark history and is horrified to learn that numerous Latina women in the area have faced miscarriages or infertility after childbirth. These women have been unjustly labeled as cursed, with whispers among the townsfolk suggesting that a bruja (witch) might be responsible for their suffering. Her research leads Diana to suspect that these so-called curses are merely a veil for a more sinister reality.

As her visions become increasingly vivid and alarming, she begins to see a spectral woman in her home. This woman appears bloodied and clutches a dead infant, alternating between sorrow and agony. These ghostly encounters guide Diana to secret areas within the house, including a locked basement filled with medical documents, photographs, and newspaper clippings that unveil a horrific truth: women like her have been subjected to forced sterilizations without their consent.

The tension escalates when Diana confronts Nurse Carol, a character played by Kerry Cahill, who has been overly solicitous regarding Diana’s prenatal care. However, the nurse’s demeanor turns hostile, revealing the dreadful reality of the local clinic, which has been clandestinely sterilizing Latina women while posing as a medical facility for childbirth. Disturbingly, many of these women were unconscious during labor and awoke to the horrifying realization that they would never bear children again. This dark practice is part of a wider eugenics program aimed at controlling the reproduction of non-white communities.

As the visions take on a more violent form, Diana experiences flashbacks of women restrained and undergoing brutal surgeries, their screams mingling with the horrific imagery of blood splattering against clinic walls. It becomes evident that the ghostly figure she has repeatedly encountered was one of the victims who perished during a failed operation, and it seems the spirits of these women are desperately trying to warn Diana.

As her due date approaches, Diana realizes she has been targeted for sterilization herself. When she goes into early labor and is taken to the clinic, she fights against the effects of sedatives to maintain her consciousness. With the help of another local woman whose sister vanished after childbirth, Diana narrowly escapes the operating room just in time. A confrontation erupts involving the nurse, the doctor, and Diana, culminating in a chaotic struggle. The ghostly remnants of the victims make their appearance, inducing madness in the nurse, while the doctor meets a gruesome end, his body tragically impaled by surgical instruments as the spirits exact their much-deserved vengeance.

In a thrilling climax, Diana safely delivers her child, exposing the illegal clinic’s atrocities as authorities arrive to uncover years of medical abuse and the hidden files of women subjected to forced sterilization. In a symbolic act of closure, the house that once haunted her and Beto is set ablaze, purging the cursed relics of a painful past. As the narrative closes, Diana lovingly cradles her newborn, leaving the audience with a haunting image of a bloodstain on the nursery wall, underscoring the sinister history that nearly engulfed them.