Mexican folklore brings us the legend of La Llorona, the ghost of a woman who murdered her children by drowning them in a river. After the murders, she is said to have taken her own life. Her ghost haunts the area where the murders took place by weeping and asking "Where are my children?"
In the film, THE RIVER: LEGEND OF LA LLORONA, writer/director Terrence Williams attempts to tell this tale. While he was able to convey the facts of the legend in the film’s opening credits, he failed to add any meaningful information in the subsequent seventy minutes of screen time.
The actors do not seem to care about being convincing in the delivery of their performances. In one scene, one of the characters is attacked by La Llorona and is dying. When others in the house discover him bleeding profusely, their reactions should have included fear, shock, and concern for the dying man. Instead, the viewer is subjected to stone-faced robots who seemed to be reading their lines from cue cards. Perhaps the actors should not be held completely to blame for their lackluster performances. The poorly written dialogue also contributed to this problem. In addition, the special effects were lame even by independent film standards.
IMDB’s trivia section claims that this movie was filmed in six days. If that is true, then it might provide an explanation for the film’s numerous problems.
Horror fans who are looking to be scared should look elsewhere. The only groups of people who might benefit from watching this film are actors, screenwriters and filmmakers in order to learn what pitfalls to avoid in the filmmaking process. If you feel that you must give this movie a chance, watch the opening credits. The pertinent facts about La Llorona are given. Everything that follows is a complete waste of time.
