Madres and The Manor from Welcome to the Blumhouse are half-baked horrors with strong foundations

The foundations of the two new additions to Welcome to the Blumhouse are inventive enough to distract from some sloppy construction. Madres, a new film directed by Ryan Zaragoza, claims to be “inspired by true events,” like many paranormal thrillers before it. But unlike many of those films, this one does not borrow from urban legends or famous ghost stories — it draws on verifiable atrocities committed against Latina women. The Manor, which Amazon Prime Video is releasing alongside Madres as part of the Welcome to the Blumhouse series of horror films, also tells a story of marginalised womanhood, albeit with a septuagenarian protagonist. A passionate investigative journalist, Diana is loath to leave her native Los Angeles, but she uncovers a wealth of new material when it appears a sinister force is harming the town’s pregnant Latina women.