‘Rosario’ Review – Family Curse Horror Story Gets Caught in Familiar Possession Trappings

A familial curse rears its ugly head after a death in the family in Rosario, the feature directorial debut by Felipe Vargas (Milk Teeth). The curse itself acts as a familiar horror conduit to explore generational trauma and cultural divides, employing conventional jump scare tactics, loud music stings, and supernatural freakouts in fairly predictable fashion. Yet the serviceable, safe horror feature still serves as a solid enough calling card for Vargas, who’s already lined up his next feature, thanks to solid direction, suitably grimy production design, and the type of creature design and practical effects that would feel at home in a Sam Raimi joint.

Rosario, the film’s title character, gets introduced as a teen in a prologue set shortly after her First Communion. It’s a whirlwind of expositional setup that hints toward her mother’s serious illness, grandmother’s Palo faith, and a divorce custody arrangement that’ll see Rosario growing up removed from her cultural background. Cut to the present, where an adult Rosario (Emeraude Toubia) insists on being called Rose and works as an affluent Wall Street stockbroker. Her picture-perfect life comes crashing down when she receives a call that her estranged grandmother, Griselda (Costanza Gutierrez), has died and needs a relative present when her body is collected due to her undocumented status. Naturally, an encroaching winter storm traps Rose in Griselda’s ramshackle NYC apartment alone with the body until Dad (José Zuñiga) can arrive, which is precisely when Rose’s past comes back to haunt her. Literally.

David Dastmalchian as “Joe” in the Horror film ROSARIO, a Mucho Mas Releasing release. Photo courtesy of Mucho Mas Releasing

The script by Alan Trezza (We Summon the Darkness, Burying the Ex) approaches Rose’s plight with the expected haunted house formula and structure. That entails Rose dealing with the building’s limited tenants, including an underutilized but effective David Dastmalchian as the meek but air fryer-obsessed neighbor, and the telltale signs of possession horror that starts slowly with ghost-induced scares before escalating to a full-throttle creature feature involving a slickly designed Kobayende entity. It’s here where Vargas cuts loose and channels Raimi, subjecting Toubia’s Rose to no shortage of supernatural attacks of the violent and goopy variety. That Vargas keeps it mostly practical goes far, contributing greatly to the gross-out factor in certain encounters that see our protagonist getting spewed in the face with larva-infested fluids. The grimy setting and secret horror movie passages further lend visual interest.

Toubia fares strongest when navigating the horror; Rose’s self-preservation instincts bring a few moments of levity but also mark her as a resilient survivor even as she struggles to overcome her supernatural skepticism. But Rosario is anemic in its worldbuilding and character development, relying on the idea of a Palo-inspired curse and generational trauma reveals to do the heavy lifting and distract from the underdeveloped crux of the feature: Rose’s disconnect from her family roots. It informs everything about what’s happening yet is so threadbare that the audience remains steps ahead of the heroine from the outset. The conclusion should pack a harder emotional gut punch than it manages.

Constanza Gutierrez
as “Griselda” in the Horror film ROSARIO, a Mucho Mas Releasing release. Photo courtesy of Mucho Mas Releasing

Not helping is the way that Rosario lets its protagonist off the hook, presenting her in the most favorable and warm light possible for a Wall Street broker who long ago chose financial stability and success over her mother and grandmother. That’s not to say that Rose is a villain, but rather that the script plays it too safe with her character and robs the horror proceedings of stakes and catharsis.

That’s the best word to sum up Vargas’ feature debut: safe. It’s straightforward, self-contained, and adheres to an appreciable 90-minute runtime that cuts right to the chase. Vargas makes good use of the limited setting and the practical effects but is constrained by the script’s limitations. Not even the cultural specificity or inspired creature work can distract from the familiar possession horror trappings here, but it’s also an inoffensive horror effort all around. 

Rosario releases in limited theaters today, May 2.

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