This movie has a lot of issues. It's clearly very low budget. Right away, in the introduction sequence before the credits, the filter used on the camera or something just screams amateur student film. It does get a little better, but the lighting design is awful. It's hard to even distinguish that nighttime scenes are taking place at night, because it's lit so brightly at times. The make-up is awful, and the acting isn't so great either.
Even with all that, the movie had potential, building on the legendary Mexican folklore of La Llorona. While the details may vary, in general La Llorona is an un-dead mother who at some point lost her child and now as a ghost snatches children. In this movie, a couple goes on vacation to a villa in Mexico with their young boy. The keeper of the villa is immediately concerned upon learning the couple has a young child because the place is haunted by La Llorona. Keeping with the theme of the loss of a child, the couple is struggling with the recent loss of another child, and we find out that the innkeeper also lost her daughter to La Llorona. On the first night of their stay, La Llorona begins to torment the family trying to take their boy. And this is where things get just too bad. The boy is repeatedly snatched by the ghost vanishing into thin air, or sliding through the walls as a moist shadow only to reappear a moment later somewhere else unharmed. The worst part is that the boy in no way seems like he's traumatized by the paranormal phenomena he just experienced. Another concept I don't understand is how a firearm can physically repel a spirit. And at one point the mother thinks she had lost her son for good and simply just says so with no emotional reaction.
There were moments of the movie where I felt vested into wanting to know what would happen, and I even find some parts to be a little chilling despite the low budget effects. I wanted to like this movie, but it just could not save itself from its own curse of bad writing.
Even with all that, the movie had potential, building on the legendary Mexican folklore of La Llorona. While the details may vary, in general La Llorona is an un-dead mother who at some point lost her child and now as a ghost snatches children. In this movie, a couple goes on vacation to a villa in Mexico with their young boy. The keeper of the villa is immediately concerned upon learning the couple has a young child because the place is haunted by La Llorona. Keeping with the theme of the loss of a child, the couple is struggling with the recent loss of another child, and we find out that the innkeeper also lost her daughter to La Llorona. On the first night of their stay, La Llorona begins to torment the family trying to take their boy. And this is where things get just too bad. The boy is repeatedly snatched by the ghost vanishing into thin air, or sliding through the walls as a moist shadow only to reappear a moment later somewhere else unharmed. The worst part is that the boy in no way seems like he's traumatized by the paranormal phenomena he just experienced. Another concept I don't understand is how a firearm can physically repel a spirit. And at one point the mother thinks she had lost her son for good and simply just says so with no emotional reaction.
There were moments of the movie where I felt vested into wanting to know what would happen, and I even find some parts to be a little chilling despite the low budget effects. I wanted to like this movie, but it just could not save itself from its own curse of bad writing.