The Old Ways (2020).

The Stage.

A young journalist is taken prisoner after exploring a cave that she was advised not to visit. The locals will not let her leave because they think a demon has made its way into her body.

The Review.

I’ve seen a lot of exorcism films in my time, and while The Old Ways doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the tried and true formula, it’s certainly interesting, and that’s because of two things: it’s mythology and it’s very flawed main character.

Almost the entire film takes place in a small hut in the jungles of Veracruz. We’re put in the same situation as Cristina, the woman being held captive, as she tries to figure out what people around her are saying as the hood is taken off of her head. There are no subtitles. Most of what is conveyed about the…thing…they’re trying to excise from her is told through physical symbols and things written on the walls. There’s no explanation for the events, for the cures, we’re just along for the ride. The atmosphere is dank and dusty and the Spanish-language music is great.

Cristina is a character you’ll have a hard time rooting for…at least at first. We find out pretty quickly that she’s got a heroin problem, a very clear allegory for the mystical demon that is taking over her body. As she’s in a room with nothing to do but think, it’s easy to compare her waiting for the demon to be excised as a detox to get her clean. Of course this is a horror movie, so there’s more to it. There’s a moment late in the film where she brushes off all of the lessons she should have learned, but late in the third act, we see some tremendous growth. By the end, I was really behind Cristina, a testament to a good script as well as the acting by Brigitte Kali Canales who most people would probably know as Rachel from Fear the Walking Dead. She nails the care-free American who barges in on the locals and thinks she can get away with it because “I’m an American” who transforms into someone who respects local mythology.

There are only three other characters in the cast. Miranda, Cristina’s estranged cousin, Luz, the old woman who’s trying to excise the demon, and her son Javi, who is trying to keep everything together at the hut. They’re all fine in their roles, particularly Julia Vera as Luz, an Indigenous shaman with roots going back to pre-Aztec times, trying all the tricks in her playbook to vanquish the demon.

There isn’t much in the way of gore, but there are some really stomach churning scenes involving things coming out of Cristina’s body. We do get a few glimpses of the creature and I thought they were pretty well done.

The End.

The way things play out is nothing you haven’t seen before if you’re a fan of exorcism films, and it isn’t really scary, so if you’re looking for the next Exorcist, this isn’t it…but I enjoyed The Old Ways nonetheless. It’s well written, even sprinkling in some comedy here and there with lines that probably would have played great with an anxious crowd. The film lost a bit of steam in the middle, but never enough to lose my interest before it ramped back up in the third act towards a fun close. I dug it and recommend it.