Anna Daniels
Issa López, director of the fantastic horror film Tigers Are Not Afraid, is teaming up with Blumhouse. López will helm Our Lady of Tears, based on an article about a case of mass hysteria that overtook an all-girls Catholic boarding school in Mexico City. Per the story, “Between October 2006 and June 2007, an outbreak swept through a Catholic school in Mexico. A piercing sensation in their legs. Nausea and fevers. Suicidal thoughts. What was afflicting more than 500 students of Girlstown?”
Daniel Hernandez’s article The Haunting of Girls Town will serve as the inspiration for Our Lady of Tears, a Blumhouse production from director Issa López. López will write and direct the film adaptation of the article that “focuses on a mass hysteria epidemic with supernatural roots, that in 2007 spread through Villa de las Niñas, an all girls, Catholic boarding school in the outskirts of Mexico City. The school recruited and isolated socially neglected girls coming from families living in extreme poverty and in remote areas of Mexico.” Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times about the event:
Some 600 girls at theVilla de las Niñas outside Mexico City, a boarding school run by Roman Catholic nuns, have been struck by a mystery illness that the authorities say is psychological, raising questions about conditions inside the school. Mother Superior Margie Cheong said that it was unclear what had caused the symptoms, which include difficulty walking and nausea, but that ”the diagnosis by health authorities is of a psychological ailment.” She said she had only recently alerted parents and the authorities, despite the first cases having appeared in October, because she did not want to cause panic. Some students have complained of overly strict disciplinary measures.
This sounds pretty damn great overall, and after Tigers Are Not Afraid, I’m all-in on whatever López has in store for audiences.
“The moment I read the Epic article, I knew I wanted to tell this story,” López said. “I myself attended a Catholic school in Mexico City. I grew up on a steady diet of supernatural visitations and miracles, and of the real life horrors that young girls who grow up in poverty face every day in Mexico, and around the world. Having the chance to tell that story with Jason and his team, producers of such socially incisive genre classics like Get Out, and of so many true horror gems, is a huge privilege. I couldn’t be more excited about this movie.”
Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum added: “The Blumhouse team was enthralled by the original article and Daniel’s deep reporting around such a terrifying and heartbreaking story. Ever since I first watched Tigers Are Not Afraid, I have wanted to find a project to collaborate on with Issa and I knew this was a perfect fit. I can’t wait for audiences to see her take on this material.”
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