Horror Movie Review: The Old Ways (2020)

The Old Ways is a 2020 American horror film directed by Christopher Alender. It stars Brigitte Kali Canales as Cristina Lopez, a Mexican-American reporter who returns to her hometown near Veracruz in search of a story on witchcraft.

A young Cristina watches as her mother undergoes an exorcism. When her mother beckons Cristina to her bedside, the demon controlling her lunges at Cristina and leaves scratches on her arm.

In the present, an adult Cristina waking up in a remote hut in Veracruz, Mexico. A man, Javi, asks her why she was in a region called La Boca. Luz, a Nahuatl bruja (local witch/healer), looks into her eyes and proclaims, “She has it”. Javi then forces Cristina to drink goat’s milk to purify her soul. Cristina’s cousin Miranda explains that she found her lying unconscious at La Boca and brought her to Luz and Javi to help her.

It is revealed that Cristina is a Los Angeles journalist who returned to her hometown to investigate the La Boca ruins. She is addicted to heroin and continues to inject the drug with her remaining syringes while chained to her bed. She insists that she does not have a demon inside of her. Luz and Javi perform a ritual to exorcise the demon. Though Cristina remains skeptical, she accepts she is possessed after disturbing events occur. Snakes enter her room, she finds a rooster inexplicably mangled in her cell, and sees candles burn out and lead to a dark corner in the room. During another ritual, Luz seems to pull animal teeth out of her abdomen. And unsuccessfully tries to extract a snake, which escapes back into her body.

One night, she chokes Javi unconscious and tries to escape, but an invisible force prevents her from leaving. She becomes a believer in the demon, Postehki, after she vomits hair and black liquid.

Can the bruja cast out the demon or will Cristina succumb to it? Watch and find out.

Exorcism is a tired horror movie subgenre, at this point we’ve seen it all. However, The Old Ways was something different due to the cultural aspects depicted in the film.

Character development was sorely lacking. Cristina desperately needed some flashback scenes to show the reasons behind her emotional turmoil and her struggle since her mother’s death. Additonally, I have no clue what the deal was with her relationship with her cousin. They hadn’t seen each other or spoke in 20 years but were so close?

I did enjoy Cristina’s comeback and taking on the demon but it all felt very rushed. It was satisfying seeing the notion of a witch be reclaimed as the helpful healer, instead of an evil being though.

Although there is dodgy CGI in places, the demon looks great. It definitely has the right the creep factor.

Overall, The Old Ways isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking but it mixes up the traditional Catholic exorcism mould just enough to intrigue me more than usual.