PLOT SUMMARY: Carly and Andrew take their son Danny to Mexico to reconnect after a tragedy. But when their son disappears, Carly and Andrew must now deal with the legend of La Llorona.
One of the most popular legends in Mexican folklore is the legend of La Llorona. It is so popular that it has been featured in various films and TV shows.
Well, here's another movie depicting the tale of La Llorona.
THE LEGEND OF LA LLORONA Movie Plot
In the first scene, a boy and girl are with their mother, roaming about the marshes. The mother makes a bed for the girl and tells her son to take care of his sister so that she can go wander about in the dark.
Soon enough the kids hear their mother call and obviously decide to forget their mother's advice to stay put. But oh no, it was a trick all along! It was La Llorona luring the kids to her.
Sometime later, Carly, Andrew and Danny are in the cab with Jorge as a driver. Danny keeps puking possibly from the long trip over to Mexico. Jorge keeps making Danny throw up further by describing the odd delicacies available around including fried ants.
Carly is lost in her thoughts and needs to be called twice to get her son another puking bag. She does so and pats her son's head before losing herself in her thoughts again.
On the way they see a group of locals and Jorge warns the family to stay near the villa only. Throughout the movie there are a lot of stereotypes and Mexicans are either seen as members of the cartel or those who are so pious that they keep making the sign of the cross every two minutes.
Also, they pass by a woman putting up a photo of a missing child to a wall that has so many pictures of missing kids.
Just why did Carly and Andrew choose this location to vacation when they can't even go to a restaurant and must stay put in the villa only?
Anyway, they reach the villa and meet Veronica. She begins by reading Carly's palm and asks her if she's a Mexican. Carly says she has no idea because she was adopted. Veronica then gasps when she sees Danny. Nobody told her there was going to be a kid staying here!
The family go about checking the area and while Carly and Andrew argue, Danny goes by the lake and sees a white cloth slithering inside. He doesn't think it's trash and goes forward to grab it. Of course he's pulled in and almost swept away when Carly and Andrew jump in to save him. Carly swears she felt someone grab her underwater as she freed Danny from the white cloth. Danny also talks about seeing a woman.
Later, Veronica offers to look after the kid while Carly and Andrew have a dismal dinner at a restaurant where the very hooligan they saw pass by on the way over makes some remarks to Carly which is more confusing than flirtatious. Andrew intervenes but Jorge comes over and defuses the situation. He reminds the couple that they are not allowed to eat out at restaurants when they are on vacation and stay only in the villa.
They run to the villa.
Carly and Andrew are still dinner-less as they put Danny to bed. Carly is still moping about and it is revealed that she miscarried a girl baby which is why she is so depressed she must take her meds. Andrew keeps reminding her what a gem he is for staying with her considering most couple break up after a woman suffers a miscarriage. It's been eight months after all and Carly is supposed to get over it, already.
While they argue about how Carly is neglecting Danny she spots him outside the window being taken by a woman in white.
Carly goes crazy searching for Danny and jumps into the lake because she thinks she saw Danny. Andrew then comes over, holding their son and tells her he was in the bathroom.
Andrew leaves Danny on the bank and goes to get Carly who keeps telling him that there was a woman who had snatched their son. She doesn't want to come out of the lake. Andrew drags her out and of course, Danny has disappeared.
Now begins a series of confusing scenes. Danny keeps disappearing and coming back. And somewhere along the lines, the Mexican group is blamed for it. Jorge claims kids are kidnapped and used for bad things. But wait, the guy who is believed to be part of a cartel and who keeps popping up throughout the movie is Jorge's son. Just why does Jorge accuse his son of indirectly kidnapping kids and making them do heinous things, doesn't make sense.
It's like the third act of the movie was written by another writer who didn't read what the first writer had written. The writing is all over the place here.
THE LEGEND OF LA LLORONA Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Jorge insinuates the hooligans had something to do with it which angers Andrew to the point that he drives away in Jorge's cab. He sees Danny and La Llorona in the middle of the road and swerves and hits a tree. Danny runs away while someone picks up the large cross that decorated the hood and Andrew's phone.
It's Jorge, although his intentions regarding keeping Andrew away remains unclear.
Then there's a story about the people in the photo placed inside the house and in front of which Veronica keeps making the sign of the cross.
Turns out the man in the photo had an affair with a woman called Maria who had a child. The man refuses to leave his wife. Maria then takes the baby to the lake to either baptise or drown him when her lover comes to snatch the baby away since his wife can't conceive. When Maria protests, he throws a rock at her, busting half her face which is why the ghost has half her face exposed.
Jorge and Veronica explain that Maria's ghost has been called La Llorona too because she has been searching for her baby and will stop only when she finds it.
Carly finds Danny and puts him to bed and has a chat with the others. He cries out and is taken once more by the ghost. This time she takes him behind the walls and leaves a wet trail on the wall.
Carly has had enough of the ghost's tricks and decides to go to find Maria's ghost on the island where there are several dolls hung on trees and according to legend the souls of kids are trapped in them.
In between all of this Veronica has her own anguish to share about her missing daughter Angela who was taken by the ghost.
Carly calls up Andrew's phone to update him but it is Jorge's pocket that twitches. He has Andrew's phone and he tells her some story about keeping Andrew away from all this La Llorona trouble.
Carly picks up a shovel and pauses near the door to deliver a line: I'm coming baby. Mommy's coming.
Can Danny hear her? Is she delivering this message telepathically?
She heads over to find Andrew sitting comfortably with the hooligans. Jorge drops a bomb when he says the leader is his son and so Andrew is let go. He could have easily ordered his son to go easy on the gringos. But he doesn't and lets his son harass them.
Andrew and Carly set about on the island and search for the doll they think must be Maria's child whom her lover's wife must have raised. They are instead spooked by La Llorona who keeps screaming at their face but doesn't do much. It was creepy in the first half, and the effects aren't that bad, but as mentioned earlier, the third part of the movie looks like it was either finished in a hurry or made by a different team. La Llorona looked scary before, but in the climax, her makeup is almost clownish.
Carly sees a skeleton in a room and brings it to La Llorona after she finds Danny. She tells her husband to take their son to the boat but they dilly-dally.
La Llorona is caressing the skeleton when she sees the locket around it. It isn't her child but her lover's wife. Oops!
La Llorona starts scratching her face while Carly runs away. They get out of the island on the boat when Carly feels a presence behind her. She tells Andrew to save Danny and not her.
La Llorona comes up behind Carly and makes mime faces and then growls.
Danny weeps and tells the ghost he doesn't want to grow up without his mom. Great dialogue there. Not: leave my mom! Don't hurt her! Nope. I don't want to grow up without my mom.
La Llorona makes a mime face again as she recalls the time her baby was taken away and had to grow up without her. She is so distracted, and so is everyone else, that no one sees Jorge creeping up behind her to stab her with his trusty jewelled cross.
La Llorona goes up in smoke.
Andrew and Carly hug and talk about going back home where things make sense because things simply don't make sense in any other country.
While they are packing, Carly who had placed the sonogram of her baby who passed away on the music box, remembers how Veronica told her the music box played only when La Llorona was nearby.
She also recalls how Veronica tells Carly she looked familiar and whether she was a Mexican.
It is pretty much insinuated that Carly is a descendant of La Llorona.
The music box starts to play.
La Llorona is coming for her baby and the reason she had become strong enough to come out during the day was that her child was nearby...Carly.
Yes, another plot hole. La Llorona was only supposed to attack at night yet in Veronica's flashback, Angela was taken during the day. Carly was nowhere around then.
The Legend of La Llorona actually starts off pretty well in the first part and then gets confusing in the second part. The third part of the movie becomes utterly ridiculous. Just how did Jorge know where Andrew was going to crash or where the family would end up so he could end La Llorona? Does he have mystical powers of his own?
Scare scale: 2/5
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