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Wailer, The |
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Six
friends who are on vacation in Mexico are having
a hard time finding a hotel room for the night. It's
high season so it seems like they're going to have
to spend yet another night sleeping on the beach.
Fortunately for them, a man overhears their conversation
and informs them that he has a small cabin in the
mountains available for rent. They're a bit sceptical
at first but decide to take his offer. What they
don't know is that the cabin holds a terrifying
secret which could kill them all.
The Wailer is based on the Hispanic legend of "La
Llorona". Since I'm not familiar with this legend
I'm going to describe it in the same way that it
was portrayed in this movie. La Llorona is the ghost
of a woman who killed her two children in order to
be with the man she loved. When the man found out,
he thought she was out of her mind and ended up
killing her. So according to the legend you can still
hear her calling out for her children in the middle
of the night. Pretty creepy stuff huh?
Anyhow, heading into this movie I had no idea what
to expect. By the looks of the cover it looked pretty
low-budget so I wasn't overly excited to see it,
but I figured I didn't have anything else to watch
so I might as well give it a shot. Well I'm glad that
I did because I ended up really enjoying The Wailer.
Six American friends (it is not a Spanish language
movie as some of you might think) are on vacation in
Mexico and decide to stay in an isolated cabin in the
mountains. The scenery is beautiful and they even
have their own little waterfall (well, it's a spring).
It seems like it's going to be a great weekend, until
the sun sets and strange things start happening. When
one of the friends die, things get really out of
control, and they soon realize that the ghost of a
woman who lived in the cabin several years ago is
out to kill them for some unexplained reason.
We never really do find out why La Llorona is out to
kill the teenagers but it never really bothered me
until the movie was finally over. There were so many
questions left unanswered. Like, why did La Llorona
have the hands of the creature from the black lagoon?
Either way, these weren't major flaws and as I said,
while watching the movie, it didn't really bother me.
The movie is beautifully shot and director Andrés
Navia sure knows how to work a tight budget. The
acting is a mixed bag but overall actually impressed
me. Another thing that impressed me was the fact that
there were a couple of good scares which made me jump.
Not many movies with this kind of budget succeeds
with that for some reason.
Ultimately I think that The Wailer is a pretty good
ghost flick but I'm sure it's a whole lot better if
you actually know about the legend. Don't be scared
off by the cover because it's beautifully shot and
looks much better than most DTV horror releases. Give
it a chance if you like ghost stories.
A lot of blood and gory bodies. No on screen action
though which was kind of a bummer.
The cheap R'n'B music failed to impress me and the
suspense score really didn't do a whole lot for
the movie. Sure, there were some good scares but
there was never any real suspense in here.
Surprisingly decent ghost movie which is probably
more entertaining for those of you who have heard
about this legend. Don't let the cheap-looking cover
scare you off, if you enjoy a good scare and hot
teens bathing in a waterfall, you might want to
give this one a try.
Review By: AnthroFred
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