Released in 1963, two years after production was completed, The Curse of the Crying Woman, is the fourth Mexican horror film dealing with the subject of La Llorona, “the crying woman” or “the wailer.” However, it’s the furthest removed from the original legend of a vengeful ghost that roams near bodies of water mourning the children she drowned. There’s neither water nor children here; however, a “modern day” witch attempts to bring the deteriorated corpse of the woman back to life.
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Sadly, because I was under the impression this was the best of Indicator’s Mexico Macabra box set, it’s my least favorite of the four films. There’s not a huge gap between this movie and the others; they share many of the same characteristics. The difference here is that the slow, deliberate moments seem present simply to pad the running time. For example, why do we need to watch Juan (Carlos Lopez Moctezuma) hobble all the was across a landing, then slowly descend a staircase?
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The other difference is that the multiple reaction shots showing the faces of characters during dramatic moments seem particularly overwrought. Although I’ve never seen one, I imagine it’s a style common in telenovelas (or a spoof on Saturday Night Live.) One such example occurs near the beginning when Amelia (Rosita Arenas) and her husband, Jaime (Abel Salazar), arrive at her aunt’s “mansion.” They’re startled by Juan and we get rapid close-ups of each of their facial expressions.
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We know that Amelia’s aunt, Selma (Rita Macedo), is some kind of evil creature before the opening credits roll. She stands beside the road with black eyes holding three big dogs on a leash. Her “henchman,” Juan, ambushes a coach that’s moving through the countryside, it’s passengers sensing something unpleasant in the air. She releases the hounds for a brutal attack in which the travelers are all killed. That is, except for one young woman who is instead run over by the coach after Juan slaps the rear end of one of the horses pulling it.
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Post-credits, Capitan (Mario Sevilla) interrogates Selma, whose eyes have returned to normal, about the crimes that have run rampant in the area, leaving every drop of blood drained from the bodies of the victims. (We saw no indication of this happening.) The plot point of a murder mystery is dropped until the conclusion of the story, when the survivor of another attack tips off the police and they celebrate that they finally have proof Selma is responsible.
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When it comes to Selma’s motives, there’s no mystery for us. At midnight, Amelia with turn 25 and will need to remove the spear from the aforementioned corpse to bring her back to life. This will somehow make Selma omnipotent, something she discusses frequently throughout the movie. (More padding?) In the four hours until the tower bell rings 12 times, Amelia will begin to feel a bloodlust and her eyes will turn black, regardless of any willingness on her own part to participate in such shenanigans.
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However, as the seemingly unkillable Jaime hangs as a prisoner in front of Selma, Amelia, and the corpse, begging her to stop and insisting that he loves her, the suspense comes from wondering if her good side will prevail. Like The Witch’s Mirror, the climax compensates for any previous shortcomings of the film. The giant bell hangs above the “dungeon” in which the action is taking place. As it moves for the first time in decades, clouds of dust descend upon the characters below.
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The longer it takes for Amelia to remove the spear, the more damage is done to the mansion. Walls crack and the ground shakes. In one of several terrific shots, we share the point of view of one of the characters as the bell is loosed and comes crashing down. House of Usher is not the only movie evoked in The Curse of the Crying Woman. It borrows ideas from films from other countries as well as its own. It’s always the combinations of these ideas, though, that make the Mexican macabre unique.
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