Urban Legends and Horror Cinema

Where would we be without Urban Legends? I’m not talking about the Urban Legends film franchise, I’m talking about the countless local, regional, and global legends that spawn so many great horror stories. There’s the Mothman, The Jersey Devil, Bloody Mary… and La Llorona… to name but a few.

I first became aware of La Llorona a few years ago when I was running the lighting crew up at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. We had a La Lorona attraction that was pretty impressive. When I was told it was based of a Mexican Urban Legend… well, the curious sucker that I am, I had to do some research.

The story of La Llorona has murkey beginnings with many people believing it happened in their town.

Yet others believe the tale of La Llorona originated with the tale of the Aztec Godess Cihuacoati who, legend says, appeared just before the Spanish invasion of Mexico crying for her children (the Aztec People who were soon to be decimated by Spanish invasion)

Others say that La Llorona is La Malinche. The lover of Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes, it is said that upon learning that Cortes was going to return to Spain with another woman, and La Malinches children, She kidnapped the children. When the Spanish cornered here on the shores of a lake by present day Mexico City, she killed her children rather then letting Cortes take them away to Spain.

The Legend

Either way, the basic legend of La Llorona goes something like this:

La Llorona was a woman who fell in love with a man. When the man told her that they could not be together because of her children, she killed her children. The Man found out what she did, and was rightfully disgusted. He dumped her. She became really depressed, because she killed her kids for a dude that dumped her for killing her kids, so she committed suicide. God wouldn’t let her into heaven without her Children, so now La Llorona roams the earth in search of her children.

And she kidnaps, and sometimes eats, bad children.

Enough about that, What about the Short Film?

So I saw the Horror Short Film La Llorona on Youtube, and, considering my familiarity with the subject, decided to do a write up here.

This short film was Directed by Youtube user JoeNationTV as part of the BlackBoxTV Urban Legends Collaboration.

Taryn O’Neill Plays the lead quite well, and her performance, combined with some interesting editing choices, and good audio cues, really give La Llorona some good tension.

Check it out, and tell us what you think in the comments below!