Someone's in the Elevator with La Llorona: Horror Mexican-style with Rigoberto Castaneda
The next time you hear a woman screaming like a thousand cats "Donde esta mis ninos?" Whatever you do, don't say "Aqui."Rigoberto Castaneda is the director of two small (if just over $3 million is small), very scary movies. The first of which, the Spanish-language "Km 31
," utilizes a character from Latino folklore to underscore the scare, as it were, and the most recent, the trapped-in-an-elevator gem "Blackout," lets our prehistoric claustrophobia drive the story.I recently interviewed Castaneda from his home in Mexico and present an excerpt of the article here:
Mavervorl: The La Llorona tale is common in the Spanish-speaking world, but it varies depending on the country. Rather than dealing with La Llorona directly in "Kilometer 31" you incorporated the story into an existing plotline. Please tell us a little about the Mexican version of La Llorona, how you first heard the tale, and how the story developed as you worked with the script for the movie.Rigoberto Castaneda: The legend transformed me when I was a little kid. I remember being in a small town called Aculco, where my mother’s family is from. My cousins and I were with my Grandmother one night, and she told us about La Llorona. It was something really scary for a 7-year-old. But the scariest part was that she told us she saw her once, in the middle of the river, floating over the water and screaming like a thousand cats. Figure that out. Your grandmother tells you that the crying lady exists!
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Both "Km 31
" and "Blackout" are now available on DVD and make for a chilling double feature.Labels: folktales, horror, interviews, la llorona, mexico, rigoberto castaneda
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