La Llorona (2020)
…………………………………………………
La Llorona Movie Review
La Llorona is a 2020 Guatemalan film directed by Jayro Bustamante and starring Maria Mercedes Coroy. It’s a very serious horror drama.
In Guatemala, Alma is murdered with her children during a military attack. Thirty years later, the general who ordered the genocide is found not guilty, and Alma comes back to the world of the living to torment Gen. Enrique. First and foremost, this is not really a horror movie. You can see a general trend in 2020 with movies such as ‘Relic’ and this one – they are more dramas with horror overtones than pure horror movies, so they are not really meant for the wider masses, but more for the critics, and that’s okay.
………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………..
La Llorona clearly has some great horror scenes as they utilized this very famous old Latin tale of the weeping woman to great effect in some quite atmospheric scenes, but they are rare and I wanted more of them for sure. The movie is first and foremost a political drama that requires some knowledge on the part of a viewer, especially when it comes to the Guatemalan genocide of Maya people that happened during the eighties in particular.
The film hinges way too heavily on the audience knowing the history at hand, but still it is a great introduction to this historical period and the bloody history of this particular country. It’s a required viewing for any history buff for sure.
La Llorona depicts brutally how all of this was carried out and how angry the people must have been due to this horrible injustice and crime committed upon the indigenous people of the region. The political scenes are great, but the family ones aren’t all that great with the exception of the bad marriage depiction, which was really well done with the horny Enrique character.
The flick is very well shot and directed, but some of the scenes of the first half grind the movie to a halt how slow and uneventful they are. The movie should have been much faster in pace and denser in plotting, but overall I was intrigued and saddened by it quite a bit.
………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………..
