Five of the scariest movies based on popular urban legends
By Verona Jones
We take a look at 5 popular urban legends that are so scary that they inspired movies about them.
Urban legends like the Loch Ness Monster, the New Jersey Devil, or Sasquatch have been around for centuries. For some, just the mere mention of this phenomena causes a profound sense of dread.
So, for fun, we decided to create a list of five of the scariest movies inspired by popular urban legends.
5 scary movies based on urban legends:
5. The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
The urban legend of La Llorona or the Wailing Woman originated in Mexico and has been around since before the Conquest. Like the Navajo Skinwalker, the myth is firmly rooted in Hispanic culture.
No one knows exactly how the legend came into being but the story usually involves a mother who drowned her children. Some say she did it because of jealousy. Others believe that she was a beautiful woman who didn’t want to share her husband’s attention. This is what leads her to commit the ultimate sin.
After realizing what she has done, the Wailing Woman is cursed to roam the land for eternity until she finds her offspring. She is believed to haunt rivers, streams and other bodies of water always searching for her children.
In the movie version of this particular urban legend, La Llorona physically takes the children and drowns them. The story follows Anna (Linda Cardellini), a single mother who is also a social worker.
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When another single mother starts behaving erratically and locking her children inside a closet, Anna is called in to assess the case. She has the woman’s children temporarily removed until she can figure out what is going on.
Somehow or other, the children are mysteriously killed when they leave their mother’s custody. Of course, the mother blames Anna for her tragedy.
There was a reason why she had her offspring in the closet. She deliberately placed her family in that location to protect them from La Llorona.
Anna, doesn’t believe in urban legends, until her own children are being stalked by an unknown force. Now, she begins to question everything she believed.
The Curse of Llorona is found on You Tube, Google Play, Amazon Prime, VUDU and Hulu.
4. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
This movie is based on parapsychologist John Keel’s 1975 novel about the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Sightings of this creature with red glowing eyes intensified during 1966, the year before the Silver Bridge collapsed killing 46 people. Many enthusiasts feel that seeing the Mothman is a harbinger of pending doom.
Point Pleasant has taken the Mothman into their hearts by erecting a 12-foot metallic statue of the elusive creature. There have been other reported, but unconfirmed sightings of this entity that have sinister undertones. Witnesses state that they were stalked by the red-eyed monster. One couple in particular named Jeff and Krystle swear that they were being haunted by the Mothman.
In the movie The Mothman Prophecies, Richard Gere plays John Klein a man whose wife (Debra Messing) had a vision of the urban legend prior to her death in a car accident. Two years later, after that tragedy, Klein finds himself investigating a rash of Mothman sightings in Point Pleasant . He begins to believe that seeing this horrific creature is a warning that a pending disaster is on the horizon.
Gere does an amazing job of portraying a skeptic trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of his beloved wife. You also get some great background on the Mothman sightings and more information about the popular urban legend as well.
The Mothman Prophecies can be found on Crackle, Amazon Prime, VUDU, You Tube, iTunes and Google Play.