‘The Curse of La Patasola’: A Latin American Folktale For American Audiences [Review]
Latin America is rich with its folktales and myths that are both entertaining and serve as precautionary tales. Unfortunately, many of these terrifying narratives hardly depart from their country of origin. Director/writer and star A. J. Jones uses his feature debut The Curse of La Patasola to shine a light on a piece of Colombian folklore. La Patasola, in English known as “One Legged”, is a folktale many haven’t heard of before the film, myself included. Her story is set in the forest and according to legend, this vampiric monster can possess humans and instill fear in relationships about the dangers of infidelity.
After the cold opening, the flawed characters are introduced in a long sequence to showcase the dynamic between two couples. Sara (Gillie Jones) is by herself on her phone as she daydreams about becoming a nurse. Meanwhile, her husband Daniel (A. J. Jones) is the epitome of an annoying macho male figure. James (Patrick R. Walker) on the other hand is the complete opposite by being a pushover, a quality Daniel consistently brings up. And lastly, Naomi (Najah Bradley) is strong and opinionated. This is shown by the multiple arguments Daniel and Naomi get into throughout the film. The first one is about feminism.
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The argument only lasts a few minutes on screen, yet it feels like an eternity. Naomi does bring up some valid points, but unfortunately, the film doesn’t fully venture further into exploring female empowerment. Given the titular monster and Naomi’s firm stance, further discussion about gender could have fit in nicely with the film. Instead, this opening sequence only brings up great points and ideas that never get fleshed out. This creates a missed opportunity to address critical social commentary.
After the feminism argument a park ranger, who resembles a police officer, stops the four adults. Daniel who is driving doesn’t change his demeanor and continues his rude behavior now towards the cop. He even claims to have a Chekhov’s flare gun in the glove compartment. Naomi, a dark-skinned South American, and James, a Black man, are in shock by how Daniel responds to the man of authority. Once the four are left alone, Naomi and James place their concerns but the sceneraio is never brought up again, again leaving behind the conversation of race and feminism.
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Instead of focusing on grand scale issues, the film focuses on personal drama and dilemmas such as Sara wanting to become a nurse. Only this isn’t currently feasible because she is currently the provider while Daniel unsuccessfully focuses on starting a business for the last five years. James plans to propose to Naomi, only Naomi doesn’t feel the spark. James’ soft personality isn’t enough for Naomi as she mentions she is used to being challenged by a partner. After the midpoint of the film, the characters self-destruct their relationships and La Patasola is used to emphasize their sins of unfaithfulness.
Jones chooses to hide La Patasola for the majority of the film. However, we do still get scenes where La Patasola’s presence is heard and felt but is never seen. Most likely due to budget constraints, the kills are mainly off-screen with the one visible death being well deserved due to the character’s unfaithfulness. Surprisingly, director Jones didn’t attempt to indicate La Patasola’s presence with multiple fake outs and jump scares. Instead, the audience and characters are aware of La Patasola’s presence by ghostly whispers dashing through the foliage which does add tension to a couple of scenes.
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The monster’s prolonged final reveal is shown in a tense way. When La Patasola’s metamorphosis begins from possessed human to beast, the framing follows other werewolf transformation scenes. Jones focuses the camera on fully converted beastly limbs. Once the monster’s full appearance comes into view, the lighting drops drastically, preventing a clear image of La Patasola. During the climactic battle, Jones focuses on the hunched silhouette of La Patasola’s final form. There’s one quick facial shot highlighting the pale makeup that’s similar to Ryuk in the live-action Death Note film, the rest is surrounded by scraggly hair and darkness.
In terms of low-budget creature features, a category of horror films I adore, The Curse of La Patasola does check some boxes for me. However, it did leave me wanting more thematically speaking considering the numerous ways the monster could be represented. But in the end, Jones chose to highlight a Latin American folktale that to my knowledge has never made a cinematic appearance until now and that for me is a win.
