Rosario

by Mike McGranaghan

One of the most exciting trends in indie horror these days is putting a culturally specific twist on familiar genre elements. Movies like Nanny, The Vigil and Umma filter their stories of terror through a different lens, allowing us to see old conventions with fresh eyes. Rosario is the latest picture to do this. It’s got many of the old standbys – a hand protruding from someone’s mouth, a demon puking bile onto the main character, etc. – yet its Latin American viewpoint prevents them from seeming stale.

Rosario Fuentes (Emeraude Toubia) is a successful stockbroker in New York City. She receives a phone call informing her that her estranged grandmother has died and someone needs to come deal with the body. During a massive blizzard, she makes her way to the decrepit apartment building where her grandmother lived. That’s when spooky stuff begins occurring. Weird neighbor Joe (Late Night with the Devil’s David Dastmalchian) keeps trying to come inside, and the corpse is overtaken by paranormal spirits that take pleasure in terrorizing Rosario.

That likely sounds very standard. Here’s where the film gets interesting, though. Rosario discovers her grandmother was a practitioner of Palo, a Cuban religion that involves communicating with spirits via various objects including an iron cauldron. She therefore comes to believe that a curse has been placed upon her as retaliation for their estrangement. In order to break the curse, the character must give herself a crash course on Palo – a difficult task given the barrage of otherworldly assaults she faces.

This is a gripping angle, one that introduces new factors into a basic possession tale. (It does, however, lead to the movie’s biggest flaw, which is that Rosario constantly narrates her own actions so the audience will understand what she’s doing). Similarly interesting is the depiction of the dynamics within Rosario’s Latino family. Agreeing to manage the corpse is her way of trying to make peace with the woman who has had a great influence on her despite their separation. The relationship she has with her father Oscar (José Zúñiga) builds on that, especially as she struggles to comprehend grandma’s fixation with Palo.

Director Felipe Vargas smartly relies on practical effects to generate tension. He stages several good jump scares, too. Particularly effective is a sequence in which Rosario hides under a bed, and let’s just say that it wouldn’t be surprising to learn a famous shot from George Romero’s Day of the Dead was an inspiration. Eerie lighting and production design, especially in grandma’s black magic lair, add to the impact.

Toubia gives a strong performance in the title role, bringing the necessary emotional grounding that every decent horror flick requires. Dastmalchian and Zúñiga are tops in supporting roles. Their characters reveal unexpected layers as the plot moves along, and the actors ensure those layers play credibly. Overall, Rosario is well-made and filled with ideas that induce a serious case of the creeps.

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