Within the horror genre there are many ways to set up your protagonists, and concurrently illustrate the dark to the light. Now in theaters and due On Demand and Digital on January 11 is The Legend of La Llorona. Sadly, this film has its heart in the right place, it is just so disjointed. It’s extremely difficult to put into words what exactly is wrong with the picture, so why don’t we start at the beginning.
Autumn Reeser (of The OC fame) portrays Carly Candlewood while Antonio Cupo stars as her husband, Andrew Candlewood. They’ve arrived in Mexico for a much-needed family vacation. From the moment their unbelievably supportive taxi driver Jorge (Danny Trejo, Machete) picks them up, his character gives off the sense this you’re going to want to 1) Listen to every single word from this man who keenly and clearly knows what’s what when it comes to this particular stretch of geography. Also, 2) when he’s alarmed, you should be frenetically freaking out.
One is immediately struck by the scenery upon arriving in this quaint Mexican town. It is gorgeous, the sun-soaked blue sky is dotted with palm trees that give way to pulse-raising missing children posters and their astronomically high number that overtake the landscape. But in Patricia Harris Seeley’s motion picture, this is all a set-up. The details of which are spoon-fed to the viewer (as they should be) as the narrative progresses.
The problem is that the tone and feel of the flick—think an 80s ABC Afterschool Special, which it shouldn’t be remotely close to, given that every parent’s nightmare comes to fruition in the preliminary stages of The Legend of La Llorona. Carly and Andrew’s son, Eduardo (Josh Zaharia), mysteriously disappears and it appears to be supernaturally caused. As is the case with most horror flicks, once the evil has occurred, the legend, heck even simply “the reason” why someone would commit such a heinous act is the next move to solve the mystery, save a life, but also to cease it from occurring once again.
This is Seeley’s big screen narrative debut. It’s not that the helmer doesn’t show promise, she absolutely does. But given how much the material fails its ensemble and audience simultaneously and a horror film that possesses truly little horror and it is a recipe for disaster, it’s difficult to judge the filmmaker’s innate gifts on this particular project.
Inside this Bed and Breakfast type establishment, things get to running amuck for the Candlewood family with a malevolent spirit who is driven by their wicked desire of retaliation. Unfortunately, there isn’t much that has been emotively established between audience and protagonists for us to be even remotely invested in any remote way in the goings-on of Carly, Andrew, and little Eduardo. There’s a real sense of take it or leave it when it comes to the draw of the story penned by Jose Prendes in his script, based on a story by Cameron Larson.
Nothing grabs the audience in a way that one would describe as even the slightest bit compelling throughout the entire motion picture. For a horror movie that centers around a young family with a young child, this part of the story-crafting should have been a slam dunk. Perhaps Prendes and Larson felt that with such a premise, the emotional tethers between audience and players on the screen would practically write themselves. The Legend of La Llorona feels like a story we’ve seen before, just in much more of a powerful way with real, genuine spooks sprinkled throughout–coupled with the costs to those involved that feels palpable.
The notorious folk tale tells the story of a woman who is having a passionate affair with a married man and becomes pregnant. She carries the baby to term, but when the father wants nothing to do with the child, she drowns the baby. There is something resonant with this story that this well has been visited by filmmakers surprisingly frequently. For example, back in 2019, we got The Curse of La Llorona. It’s a formula that is haunting and if handled correctly can be powerful and frightening on a multitude of levels. Not so much with The Legend of La Llorona.
Grade: D