La Llorona (1933 film)


La Llorona is a 1933 Mexican supernatural horror film directed by Ramón Peón and starring Ramón Pereda, Virginia Zurí, Adriana Lamar and Carlos Orellana. It is based on the legend of La Llorona. It is the first Mexican horror film.

Plot

Setting is Mexico. Maria is La Llorana “the crier”
Maria is poor but marries a wealthy man. She is quickly neglected as her husband pays more attention to the two sons than she. Out of a blind, passion filled rage, she drowns her two children.
She then kills herself. Yet she couldn't escape the horrors of what she did. She is trapped between life and death, crying out for her children. As a ghost she searches for the sons she drowned, unable to escape from earth to heaven until she finds them.

Cast

In the 1930s, a cycle of horror films began. La Llorona was one of the 21 sound films created in Mexico in 1933. The film's story is based on that of La llorona, a crying woman from Hispanic folklore who mourns her dead child.

Release

La Llorona premièred in Mexico on 25 May 1933.

Legacy

Following the release of La Llorona, Guillermo Calles was selected to direct the short feature La Chillona, a parody of La Llorona. All that remains of this film is magazine illustrations and a lobby card poster advertising a program at the Cinelandia Theater.

Citations