The Curse of the Crying Woman

Competent and highly entertaining Gothic take on the horrible family secret/curse story much like Black Sunday but with its own unique twists.

The entire plot happens in about four hours in the film’s own timeline so imagine the gothic whirlwind the audience gets. What works is the lead’s Llorona heritage taking hold like a kind of all-consuming, blood-crazed pon farr - favorite shot: she nearly kills a guy out of unknowing rage, her eyes go black, and the forest comes alive with disembodied, swirling eyeballs.

Maybe I have reached some kind of Mexican Gothic fatigue, but I just couldn't get into this one. Visually it's quite strong, but it's evident from the first scene that the filmmakers have closely studied Bava's Black Sunday. The story doesn't provide anything new and the characters are not particularly interesting. There's a couple of moody scenes, but overall it's a routine effort with scenes continuing too long, overacting and bombastic score which make it feel more of a 50's film than 1963.