User reviews

A small village of Leon Spain receives a muddied little girl. She appears behind a woman ready to end it all because of the loss and foul treatment of her son. The story introduces all the culprits that maltreated her son in many ways. The young confident girl knows all and she has a plan. As the rumor and gossip spreads through the village, the the Catholic Church and devout devise a plan. There are many volatile arguments, murders and some super-powers that intensifies the situation. The church has a legend of the apocalypse and the devout clash with the pragmatic. Horrific Goya style response leads to more understanding the very last few minutes of the film.

Living in a small village in Spain, a woman preparing to end her life finds purpose when a young girl comes into her life and encourages her to stand up to the various corrupt figures in the community which unleashes a swarm of apocalyptic events in the town forcing them to stop the pair.

There was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the finest features here is the strong setup that manages to give everything here a rather strong emotional pull that becomes incredibly immersive. Based on the background work done on the main mother here, with the tragic setup of having lost her child, her marriage, and her life in general, the central decision to want to go through with the suicide creates a kind of deep sympathy for her that makes her connection to the strange child who shows up all the more devastating. Once this turns into a far more apocalyptic genre outing with the connection between the events happening around town and the apocalyptic legend around the community, the film becomes a highly impressive genre outing. With the overt connections made to the prophecy that's had a grip over the town's history and the various actions that unfold to the townsfolks around the village, this part manages to get quite enjoyable as the more impactful genre scenes create a lot to really like about it. There's not much to dislike here, as it's really only one big flaw that holds it back. The main issue here stems from the film being much too long to really make as much of an impact as it does, going through way too much extra setup that tends to drag out the running time. This spends quite a bit of time building up the type of drama-heavy setup that can make for a slough to get through, but luckily it's not a truly big deal and manages to only slightly knock this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and children-in-jeopardy.