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Reviews
The Wailer 2 (2007)
A sequel surprisingly better than the original.
In the spirit of Halloween, I rented "The Wailer" and "The Wailer 2" over the weekend.
I watched "The Wailer" first and found it had some inspired moments but overall it was boring, the production value was cheap, and some of the acting was not too great.
So I wasn't expecting much more from the sequel, "The Wailer 2". I was pleasantly surprised.
"The Wailer 2" picks up a few month after "The Wailer". A professor travels down to Mexico to free his daughter, who he believes is possessed by an evil spirit, La Llorona. Though searching for her dead children, La Llorona kills any man who see her.
The opening scene is cool and sufficiently gory. We meet the Professor, who is having visions of his daughter Julie killing unsuspecting men. What follows is an adventure of sorts with the Professor and a newly made friend, Chava, pursuing La Llorona.
"The Wailer 2" has a high production value. Filmed in Mexico, everything appears authentic and appropriately creepy. The lead actors and actresses are competent, and the makeup effects are very good. While I can't say I was scared out of my seat, I did find the scenes with La Llorona suspenseful. The scene with a cowboy and a gun was particularly nerve wracking.
On the downside, some of the acting of the secondary roles are mediocre and two characters, a cop and a detective, were almost incomprehensible, due to their broken English. Also, there was a lot of focus made on a symbol in the film. Much dialog was focused on the symbol but I never really understood it, nor did I feel it was necessary.
The climax of the film was exciting with a great location, good effects, and believable acting. The film ends a bit like the original "Wailer", kind of ambiguously suggesting the story is not over.
All in all, I thought this film was good and surprisingly better than the original. To be fair, it is a different film, with less scare and more suspense, but good none the less.
The Wailer (2006)
A not so great movie with inspired moments.
In the spirit of Halloween, I rented "The Wailer" and "The Wailer 2" this weekend. I was surprised to see how different the films were compared to each other, both in content and in execution.
I had high hopes that "The Wailer" would scare the pants off of me as the DVD artwork was very, very creepy. Sadly, the movie was only mildly scary. The film is based on an old Mexican legend of a woman, La Llorona, who's dead spirit haunts the rivers and lakes as she hunts for her dead children. She also kills people.
The drowning of the kids was good and La Llorona's death is sufficiently tragic. But after this initial bit of horror and action, the movie fell flat on it's face. All there is is mindless talking. Some characters you just wish would be killed immediately. But it takes around 45 minutes till the next death! It seems to take forever. Making it worse is some bad acting and some dismal production design.
When the deaths start coming during the last 30 minutes of the films, the pace picks up and there are moments of tension. In particular, a scene with Nicole Daniels was scary and gruesome. But there are also scenes and situations that make absolutely no sense what so ever. At one point, everything disappears outside the windows of the house the characters are staying in. All there is is blackness. Why? Did the house enter a different dimension? Or was the evil so thick it envelopes the house? This is never explained.
To the film maker's credit, some of the makeup effects were pretty gruesome. The La Llorona character was kinda cool, although I never did understand why she had long, weird claws instead of hands. On the other hand, the sets looked cheap and contrived and the pacing of the film left little to be desired.
The ending of the film was okay, although I have to admit that it took "The Wailer 2" to explain to me exactly what happened in the end of "The Wailer".
There were some good ideas in "The Wailer" and some inspired moments. It's just a shame that the film couldn't have been more balanced and the characters more likable.