La llorona

Described on screen as "A Modern-Day Version of the Popular Legend", sadly this is one of those films that looks far more promising on paper than it is to actually watch.

For obvious reasons it wasn't until the introduction of sound before the story could be done justice on the screen. Mexico's answer to the banshee has perennially provided material for the cinema right up to the present day, and the character of Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter novels probably continues the tradition.

Bookended by two remarkably graphic scenes depicting corpses with their eyes open, unfortunately nearly half the film is devoted to swordplay rather than the phantom, which doesn't actually appear until the film has already been on for nearly forty minutes - almost half it's running time - and then gets lost in a welter of plots including a sinister hooded figure, the identity of whom when finally revealed admittedly really proves something!

The Hispanic-American legend of 'la llorona', the vengeful, wailing ghost of a woman who commits suicide after losing her child, has been fairly popular as of late, featuring in a spate of horror films such as The Legend of La Llorona (2011), The Haunting of La Llorona (2019), The La Llorona Curse (2019), La llorona (2019) , The Curse of La Llorona (2020), and La Llorona (2022).

This 1933 Mexican movie was the first time the ghost was featured on film. It sees a family under a terrible centuries old curse, their children doomed to be stabbed to death when they reach the age of four. The curse relates to the legend of La Llorona (The Crying Woman), and in two flashbacks, we are shown the origins of two 'Lloronas', the first a woman rejected by her lover, who kills her son and herself, and the second an Indian woman whose son is taken by the conquistadors, driving her to take her own life.

Unfortunately, the majority of the movie consists of dull melodrama, with very little in the way of style or supernatural happenings, making it a disappointing effort overall. Things pick up a touch towards the end of the film, as a sinister figure in a hooded robe kidnaps four-year-old Juanito, taking him into a secret room with the intention of killing him, thus fulfilling a vow sworn by their ancestor, but it doesn't make up for all of the dreary, slow-moving scenes that come before.

3.5/10 rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

This is one of the key titles from the classic period of Mexican horror, a period which was low on quantity but surprisingly high on quality. It precedes the two best-known films of the cycle, "Dos Monjes" and "El Fantasma del Convento", and shares some key personnel with them. La Llorona is a figure unique to Mexican folklore -- the wailing spirit of a woman who lost or killed her child and now returns to seek revenge and haunt the living. With its framing story and flashback structure, this film sets forth a couple of variations of the story. It is well-shot overall, with fine sets and shadowy photography (reminiscent at times of early US talkies like "The Bat Whispers"), and the scenes of the Llorona and her agents are often visually (and aurally) striking in their crude way. However, the bulk of the movie tends to be somewhat pedestrian and melodramatic, and it can't compare with the stylistic triumphs of "Monjes" and "Fantasma". As the first of the genre, though, it warrants plenty of admiration and respect. Also fascinating is the mixture of the "pagan" beliefs of the indigenous culture with the Catholic morality and ethics of the bourgeois classes, a contrast which would appear often in Mexican films. A later 1960s telling of the story (with the same title) fashions it more as a Gothic vampire piece, and is one of the finest contributions to the Latin horror revival of the time.

In the series Leyendas Coloniales/de Mexico La Llorona is one Luisa Marquesa Del Llano, who bore childs, one boy one girl to one Nuño De Montesclaros. He tried to take the children with an order from the viceroy of New Spain(now Mexico) instead of turning them over she stabbed (not drown) them. My question is those involved were members of the nobility, early Spanish settler. Hasn't anyone tried to search for records (since they were nobles some mention of them should be available in Spanish archives) to at least verify whether these people existed. Also she was hanged for her crime, there should be records of her trial and execution.

An aristocratic family has inherited a curse that sees the first born child of each generation, targeted by a malevolent spirit known as "the crying woman", at the age of four.

A result of their forebear driving his mistress to murder their illegitimate child at the same age.

Before killing herself, leaving her spirit to wander the earth...in search of vengeance on the family that scorned her.

The question we are faced with, however, is whether this retribution is being enacted by a supernatural force...or by something with a much more reasoned explanation?

Like a lot of films from the era, this early Mexican horror uses the tale, at the heart of the story, to pit superstition against science.

Which, I guess you could argue, is a sign of the times.

Though, perhaps, you can't always sum things up in such dichotomous ways.

On a cinematic level, though subtly applied, I'd argue that the portrayal of this is actually quite well done.

As Peón incorporates in a number of twists and turns, alongside moments of tension that have you guessing.

Not to mention the complete narrative 180 the story takes at the end.

With the moral of the story seeming to be that, one wrong begets another, and history is doomed to repeat itself.

For it being Mexico's first ever horror film, it really is quite a respectable undertaking.

With some rather expert construction.

On a completely different sidenote...

There is a theory that suggests the Zodiac Killer was a fan of old horror films.

And this has me wondering whether he took inspiration from the hooded killer in this film.

Obviosuly this is completely speculative.

But it's something to consider.

That being said, I really rather enjoyed this...much more than I expected to!

And I must say, I think it's actually kind of underrated.

7.5 out of 10.