A marvelously eerie experience, evoking the tradition of horror-noir maestro Val Lewton, Chilean effort “The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” begins with a woman (charismatic Mia Maestro, “The Strain”) dressed in a motorcycle jacket, emerging from a river and the words, “Is the end nigh?”

The woman’s name is Magdalena, and she is the dead mother of no-nonsense cancer surgeon Cecilia (a commanding turn by Leonor Varela). Single mother Cecilia is taking her children Tomas (Enzo Ferrada Rosati), a teen who tells her that he is a woman, and little girl Alma (Laura Del Rio) to the country to check on the ailing family patriarch Enrique (Chilean Alfredo Castro). Cecilia and her children are returning to the family-run dairy farm, where their Uncle Bernardo (Chilean Marcial Tagle) runs the business. The ghost of the family matriarch makes an appearance to Alma, who is not very surprised to see her. We hear the sounds of protest, the words, “Mother Earth.” Fishes have died in the poisoned Rio Cruces. A nearby pulp factory is the suspected culprit.

“The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” mixes elements of magical realism, ecological disaster movie, family drama, cautionary fairy tale and the walking dead. The film is a descendant of the works of Luis Bunuel and Jean Cocteau. It also recalls the films of Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”) and has strong links to Andrea Arnold’s stunning and tragic 2021 documentary “Cow.” Magdalena does not speak. But she seems real and alive. She eats and drinks ravenously. She appears before the family caretaker Felicia (Maria Velasquez), who lives close to the river and inside the forest and, once again, seems not very surprised and perhaps even delighted. Cecilia, who sees a premonitory cow in the woods with a tag reading 2222, had serious issues with her mother growing up. She fiercely commands her mother’s revenant to depart. When the heedless Magdalena appears before her husband, he asks, Scrooge-like, “Did you come for me?” Cows seem telepathically to warn Cecilia and her family that, “Death is coming.” The bees are already dead. Later, Cecilia will learn something about her mother that may bring atonement.

“The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” is unnerving, hypnotic and full of wonders. Director Francisca Alegria, who wrote and directed a thematically-connected, 19-minute, 2016 short entitled “And the Whole Sky Fit into the Dead Cow’s Eye,” makes a truly marvelous feature debut. Hello Hollywood. Screenwriters Alegria, Manuela Infante and actor-writer Fernanda Urrejola (“Cry Macho”) do a rare job of making the surreal real and the dead live (again). Magdalena visits each family member, Tomas included. With her grandchild, grandma gets the hiccups and can’t stop laughing. The strange-sounding music by Pierre Desprats is another huge plus. Have a “Cow.”

(“The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” contains disturbing images and mature themes)

Not Rated. In Spanish with subtitles. At the Brattle. Grade: A-