The Cry of failure

directed by Bernadine Santistevan (2007)

I just finished The Cry.  What a crappy horror flick.  It was in my DVR stinking it up for god knows how long, and for whatever reason, I'd marked it to be saved from automatic deletion.  Too bad, though because it wasn't worth my time.  I have to be more careful in sussing things to watch later, because if I choose summat, just my choosing it creates an impetus for watching that is hard to overcome.  EVEN when I can tell it's stinky from the description or right from the start with it's crappy DTV look, I'll be still full of hope, thinking maybe it's a buried treasure, or when it's gone a ways and it's still not looking good, I'll think, maybe it'll pull out all the stops and get genius at tying up all the loose ends, or that it's gonna have crazy awesome special effects or a super great performance that elevates the dreck beyond the sum of its parts.  I'm too quick to commit and I want to believe and that's ok if you're religious, but not so good when it comes to movies, especially horror flicks. 

This horror is particularly distasteful since its focus is child deaths, actually murders, the saddest kind - moms killing their kids. I had to look this up, because the way it's explained in the film makes very little sense, but there is a legend/story called La Llorona, about a woman who killed her kids, either because her husband left her, or she wanted to be with another man. She kills herself too, and when she's trying to get into heaven, St. Peter is all where are your kids lady?  Can't get in here without them, so she has to go back and wander around looking for them, and that's never gonna happen because they are dead right? And probably already in heaven too I guess.  The movie is based on that spooktastic tale, but it takes what's admittedly a tragic and scary premise and doesn't bring anything more to the story.


Anyhow, it's about a cop who's investigating child disappearances, or deaths?  I forget, and that's pretty sad that I'd forget such a key point, but the fact that I could forget that is an indication of how little sense this movie makes.  Lead guy, (Christian Carmago - I was wondering where I'd seen this guy before - turns out he was in Dexter), is a cop who used to be a wall street investor. In the course of the film you find out he became a cop after losing his son - there are ominous flashbacks that never explain this and the way his son died is finally revealed in a tasteless scene. I guess his career change means something, but I'm at a loss to figure out why he couldn't have always been a cop, since that part seems integral to the story.  He's got to be trying to solve the disappearances of the kids.  Oh yeah, they are missing, because at the climax of the film, he finds them.

He's got a partner who's obnoxious and doesn't know his partner lost his kid.   I guess they haven't been partners long, or they're not close.  Maybe the movie starts on the main guy's first day as a detective?  I dunno.

I just decided I'm not gonna even bother with figuring out my feelings and making fun of this flick.  It's not bad enough to warrant the energy.  It's a shitty feel bad idea, that's one part cop thriller, one part ghost/possession story, one part mental patient as the monster trope fail, toss a child in danger as the cheap fulcrum of suspense and mush all those elements together in hamfisted fashion until you plop out this stankness.

The best thing about watching it, was Karma, the short that played right after.  That one was satisfying and well done. It had some of the elements of the first one, a bit of spooky, a vengeful spirit, and a child in danger, but it made sense.  If The Cry had been condensed down to a short, then I might have given it a pass, figuratively, instead of wishing I had literally.