Movie Review: La Llorona Brings Justice To The Legend
When I was little, I was super scared of ghosts, and my grandmother would say, “Don’t fear the dead, fear the living.” Then my mom would add, “The dead are usually dead because someone living made them that way.” I thought of that instance as I watched one of THE BEST horror films I have ever seen and one that does justice to the Latina legend: La Llorona. Out on VOD, La Llorona exemplifies that good, horror films are not only about the creepiness of the supernatural but the perverseness of humanity.
Most gringo films always portray La Llorona as this crazy, demonic woman that is just drowning everyone, like she did her kids, for no reason.Yet, her legend is much sadder, intimate, and human. She drowned herself not because she lost her mind but because her spirit was crushed. Written and directed by Jayro Bustmante, he brilliantly highlights and uses the Guatemalan Genocide, as a backdrop for how evil births unrest. Known as the Silent Holocaust, Mayan tribes were decimated by the Guatemalan Genocide and killed, raped, and tortured in ways that would make any spirit cry an eternity for how they died. Thus, the film centering on the military general that led the massacre is a brilliant twist because you don’t pity him. In fact, you see Enrique Monteverde (Julio Diaz) as a monster, which is why the movie is really about what eats a monster: their own fears.
For a man that committed genocide on millions, Enrique sure gets anxious. He boldly/ cruelly ended others, denies it in front of a trial of victims’ families, but now he’s got nightmares. Yet, is it paranoia or brujeria? Is it his conscious or a ghost? The movie centers on Enrique and his family’s guilt, or lack of, on killing so many. Sabrina De La Hoz as Natalia and Margarita Kenéfic as Carmen play their roles with a silent, meek turmoil. They are the wife and daughter of a dictator, who, by day, would drown children, rape and torture women, shoot men in the head, and set fire to villages: only to return with his illegitimate children and raise them to be the family’s maid: María Telón as Valeriana. Yet, the star of this film is María Mercedes Coroy as Alma.
Coroy is perfection as Alma. This film is very chilling; often playing with silence and what characters do not say to amplify that ghosts are not just the people who die but the unsaid truths that leave with them. While Enrique may have mobs chasing him, praying for his death, the pain of their loss is palpable yet unspoken. Enter Coroy, whose silent glares and imposing presence proves that the dead who haunt do so because they are haunted, as well, by the living.
