Reviews of Jayro Bustamante’s “La Llorona” (“The Weeping Woman”) are obligated to mention that this quiet and trembling phantasmagoria about the ghosts of the Guatemalan Civil War has virtually nothing to do with Michael Chaves’ “The Curse of La Llorona,” the schlocky jump-scare machine that Warner Bros. released last spring. Aside from their shared roots in the same piece of Latin American folklore, these two films couldn’t have less in common; one is a slow-burn séance for the victims of a recent genocide, and the other is a PG-13 studio programmer that was only produced because of its ridiculous margins ($122 million in ticket sales against a $9 million budget is a job well done).

And yet, maybe it wouldn’t…

Shudders 2020 Spanish language horror, La Llorona, directed by Jayro Bustamante and starring Sabrina De La Hoz, María Mercedes Coroy and Julio Diaz, is a quiet, trembling film that sadly doesn’t utilise its potential to full effect. Set In Guatemala, the story depicts Alma, a young woman who is murdered with her children during a military attack thirty years prior. In the present day, the general who ordered the genocide is found not guilty, and thus Alma comes back to the world of the living to torment him for his sins.

In Jayro Bustamante’s third feature film, he reimagines the old Latin American legend of La Llorona with a social/political spin showing just how the indigenous people in Guatemala were…

La Llorona is touted as a horror film but it's not really - more a politically charged psychological drama with some horror elements sprinkled on top. The plot focuses on a retired general, disgraced by accusations of genocide and tormented by a paranoid feeling that he is being targeted by a supernatural force. It's a really great set up, and honestly I was expecting it to be better. The film is slow burn in the extreme and the problem is that a lot of it isn't all that interesting. The political elements are good - we get an idea of the feeling in Guatemala and the effects of their leader's actions on the everyday people, but the psychological side is…

Visually striking and poetic in its tone and structure—Jayro Bustamante recontextualizes the horror of a long-standing folkloric legend to make sense of a society that grapples with its tragic political crisis and social injustice. La Llorona is essentially a ghost story set in a domestic. It’s about how the ghosts of the past haunts the present and the living. It is how guilt is manifested and no matter how we fence ourselves to avoid it, it’s there creeping up. Bustamante perfectly observes the slow, moral decay of each family member as they experience visions, odd behaviors, and quiet hysteria. Along with its use of sound design, La Llorona utilizes noise and silence as both an integral element of bringing mystery…

Yo pensaba que la leyenda de la Llorona era un mito exclusivo mexicano. Resulta que los mitos, al igual que las culturas, se definen más por zonas geográficas que por países. Guatemala, país productor de esta genial película de horror, comparte con México el mito de la Llorona. Y la verdad, comparte muchas cosas más.

El tema de dictadores y genocidios ha sido un problema histórico recurrente en América Latina. Particularmente en centroamérica, esto parece ser un patrón. México, no ha tenido una crisis como tal, pero conoce a los gobiernos corruptos, y al cómo decisiones administrativas a favor de los intereses de quienes están en el poder pueden costar la vida de miles de ciudadanos.

La Llorona es en…

Hooptober #4

La Llorona is horror with a social conscience, like a lot of the best horror. After all, horror is a form of morality tale. What La Llorona does is recontextualise Hispanic American folklore as real life evil, specifically as a part of Guatemala's historical turmoil. Guatemala went through a lot of leaders, and war, and death. The film presents a dictator on trial for his crimes, creating a close resemblance to real history. How can a country deal with a genocide in its recent past?

La Llorona has a slow and considered pace. It is a drama, with just occasional stretches of horror. Though the stench of death extends over both genres here. The film confronts how people…

Not to be confused with The Curse of La Llorona from the Conjuring universe, 2019's La Llorona is a Guatemalan film by director Jayro Bustamante. The story reimagines the Weeping Woman folklore as a supernatural figure seeking revenge for the 1982 genocide of the Mayan population. The film opens with the testimony of a Mayan woman at the trial of fictional dictator Enrique Monteverde (based on actual dictator Efrain Rios Montt). When his conviction is overturned, mass protests gather outside his mansion, trapping him inside his home with his wife, his daughter, his granddaughter, and his maid.

Bustamante packed all kinds of magical realism into his movie. There's a water motif that is just so beautiful and eerie, and adds…

Obra de Jayro Bustamante que ahonda en los genocidios, crímenes de guerra y en la culpa que persigue a sus perpetradores. Bustamante acude a una de las figuras más representativas del folclore latinoamericano para contar la historia de un general decrépito perseguido por los terribles actos que realizó en su pasado y el eco que estos manifiestan en su presente. La llorona le da la vuelta al mito para posicionarlo en un lugar más próximo y verosímil; el personaje no se manifiesta como tal, pero está más que presente.

Desafortunadamente, las masacres en contra de los nativos en Latinoamérica han sido muy comunes a lo largo y ancho del territorio; para Bustamante, las voces silenciadas siguen hablando, están presentes desde…