Rosario hasn’t spoken to her abuela in … well, not since her mom’s funeral, which was many years ago.
So when Rosario gets a phone call that Abuela was found dead in her apartment, Rosario is racked with guilt. Her grandmother had tried to call her earlier that day. She’d even left a few voicemails. But Rosario ignored them, choosing to focus on work instead.
Well, now Rosario needs to go over to Abuela’s apartment to wait with the body until an ambulance can transport it.
But not long after learning of Abuela’s death, Rosario starts to notice strange things. On her way to the apartment, Rosario sees a strange, shadowy figure, lurking in the subway station. It disappears a moment later, so she continues on her way. When Rosario gets to the apartment, the superintendent lets her in and is startled to find lit candles in the apartment—candles he swears he had blown out already.
Of course, that’s not the only strange discovery. Abuela’s body is covered in weird scars, clearly self-inflicted. And strapped to grandma’s leg is a key that opens a door hidden in her closet.
What’s inside this mysterious room? Well, it’s downright occult. There’s a cauldron. A skull. And lots and lots of knives.
“What were you into?” Rosario wonders about her grandmother.
Then, Rosario discovers a picture of herself, and a container of her baby teeth, and a lock of her hair.
Did Abuela use these items to curse Rosario? Was she angry that Rosario hadn’t visited in years? Or that Rosario had ignored her calls?
Rosario isn’t sure, but she’s determined to find out—and break the curse, if necessary.
Though misguided in their methods, parents and grandparents make great sacrifices to provide for their children and grandchildren. Rosario and her dad have a close and loving relationship. And although Rosario had a strained relationship with her mom and grandmother, she realizes that they both loved her, too.
Rosario opens her own investment firm, focusing on helping lower-income, Spanish-speaking families that her old firm rejected.
Rosario is put off by the attitude of her abuela’s neighbor, but she eventually realizes that the man is just trying to help.
Rosario learns that Abuela practiced Palo, a pagan religion with African roots that fuses Catholicism and spiritism. (Her dad later says Abuela was a witch doctor for their village in Mexico.) She finds a Palo spellbook and occult paraphernalia used to perform spells, including a cauldron, Voodoo-like dolls, a human skull, animal skeletons and more.
Rosario learns that someone cast a Palo spell so that all of her dreams would come true. But in order for the spell to work, the spirits whom that person prays to require a daily sacrifice of blood, which is why Abuela’s body was covered in scars. Abuela had been giving her own blood every day in order to protect Rosario from the consequences of making such a deal (even though Rosario had no idea what was happening). Because, as we witness onscreen, when the spirits don’t get their blood, they allow someone who’s died to haunt the person for whom the spell was performed.
As such, Rosario is tormented by a spirit taking on the appearance of her dead mother’s rotting corpse. It’s able to physically grab Rosario and move between walls. It also seems to have some telekinetic ability: It moves Abuela’s body around; lights and extinguishes candles; and manipulates electric devices. Maggots and worms mark its presence.
When a character performs a Palo spell incorrectly, he inadvertently becomes possessed by a demonic Palo god. Rosario performs several Palo rituals—most of which require bloodletting—in her efforts to undo the spells placed on her.
Rosario and her parents are Catholic. Some characters wear rosary beads, and a few cross themselves before praying. An early scene shows Rosario’s family reciting the Lord’s Prayer together just after her First Communion as a child. Notably, Abuela does not participate in this prayer, telling Rosario, “My beliefs are not your beliefs.” Later in the film, Rosario seems to blend Palo with Catholicism, praying to multiple spirits. Someone says, “May God bless you.”
We see a woman in a sports bra and leggings. We also see her from the shoulders up, taking a bath. Couples dance together at a celebration. We learn that Rosario’s parents divorced.
There are multiple jump scares throughout the film. The spirit that haunts Rosario causes her a great deal of physical harm (in additional to emotional torment). Her face is scratched by barbed wire; a dog chases and bites her; the spirit chokes her and slams her head into a metal gate and walls.
Flashbacks depict Rosario’s mother experiencing much of the same physical trauma when she was chased by immigration agents while illegally crossing the border.
Several worms (courtesy of that evil spirit) crawl out of Abuela’s corpse; one of them burrows into Rosario’s hand, working its way through her arm and up to her head, where Rosario yanks it out with tweezers. It leaves behind a scar marking Rosario as cursed.
Abuela’s scars were indeed self-inflicted, part of pagan rituals requiring blood. We learn she may have sacrificed animals in these rituals, too. Rosario discovers a cilice (a barbed belt) strapped to her abuela’s leg. And she desecrates her grandmother’s corpse while trying to break the Palo curse.
After getting possessed, a man kicks a woman to the floor then lifts her back up by her hair. He tries to shove her face onto an open flame, but he’s stopped when someone else hits him with an air fryer. The possessed man then tosses this defender around, eventually lifting the guy off his feet with a choking grip and snapping his neck.
Someone stabs a man in the neck and shoves him onto a cauldron filled with knives with their blades facing up. We see a man die after he’s attacked by a dog.
Rosario is nearly hit by a car as she tries to avoid several men catcalling her.
We hear four uses of the f-word and about a dozen of the s-word. We also hear instances of “b–ch,” “d–mit” and “h—.” God’s name is abused three times, and Jesus’ is abused once.
Someone serves tequila at a party.
We learn that Rosario’s parents and abuela immigrated to the United States illegally, and that her grandmother never obtained legal status.
After her parents split, Rosario was forced to choose which parent she wanted to live with. She chose her dad, which caused her a lot of anguish since her mom died shortly after, and she never spoke to her grandmother again. Other people throughout the film further amplify Rosario’s guilt by blaming her for not visiting Abuela more.
A used tampon is one of the objects used in a Palo ritual. Rosario vomits after discovering it. Elsewhere, the demonic entity haunting her vomits onto Rosario’s face and neck.
One of Rosario’s colleagues is a bit condescending to her.
You know, the more horror movies I review for Plugged In, the more I can’t help but think, “Maybe if you spent a little less time praying to false gods and little more time with Jesus, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
That’s especially true in Rosario, where the religion at the heart of the film is a syncretistic blend of Christian elements and pagan ones. At one point, even Rosario realizes she’s crossing a line after catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror donning her abuela’s Palo shroud and grasping a knife.
Viewers will be exposed to occult rituals, demonic beings, foul language and a significant amount of violence—made no easier to watch considering they’re almost all committed against a woman.
But what’s so sad to me is that Rosario’s troubles all started when her family members, who were desperate to provide her with a better life, turned not to their heavenly Father (even though they certainly acknowledged God’s existence) but to the assurances of false gods.
So perhaps we can do better, turning away from this paganistic horror flick and instead focusing our entertainment attention upon something much more God-honoring.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
