La Llorona(2019)

"The fantastic level and the realistic level are the two levels upon which we live," Richard Burton said in The Night of the Iguana. La Llorona — not to be confused with the Curse/Legend of La Llorona — operates equally well on both levels, which in this case we might re-label the legendary level and the historical level. Enrique Monteverde (Julio Díaz) is an aging, infirm, and paranoid Guatemalan dictator (but…

Reviewed on August 30, 2022

<em>'La Llorona'</em> is too slow paced for my liking, it most certainly isn't a bad film though. I just couldn't lock on to what I was watching, every now and then it would hook me in but then I mostly detached again not long later. That's a shame, because there is goodness in this. It's more political drama than horror, not that the latter element is absent but I was anticipating more supernatural to this. That's…

Reviewed on February 22, 2025

Quite the Haunting introduction to the film. This telling of the story is horrific and quite heartbreaking, as any who watch will have to hear to believe. 1st Guatemalan telling for me and its story is beyond distressing, I can only imagine the Horror to come into play soon. The pain of guilt or pure hysteria, either are giving off such a horrifically haunting vibe. Either Madness has set in or the mystical is…

Reviewed on October 19, 2025

Set as Guatemala emerges from a period of military dictatorship, we are taken to the palatial home of ailing, retired and complicit general “Enrique” (Julio Diaz). He has been convicted then cleared of being atop a pyramid of abuse, murder and corruption but his associates are determined to keep him further from the hands of the courts and the people. If he falls, so do many of them. His trial has attracted a great…

Reviewed on November 23, 2025