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Rural folktales of evils and monsters are commonplace; and whether you like it or not, they are spooky. Luis Quijano’s ‘Caminante, Caminante: La Leyenda del Huay Chivo’ is a tale set in rural Yucatan, testing the soundness of a local tale. The spook content of the movie dials it right up with a dramatic warning as the film opens – the wanderer must be careful where they go after midnight, as evil may befall them.
Just like in every other horror movie, the protagonist, Laura (played by Lili Gorett) is the sceptic. In town to remedy the situation (she is a missionary), Laura disregards the possibility of El Huay Chivo’s (Julian Cavett) existence. As the movie begins, Dona Emma (Gloria Sandoval), who has been sheltering and feeding Laura, scolds her for saying grace, citing it as the reason for the monster’s renewed menace. She is clearly neither convinced nor scared.
There is also the clichéd believe-in-it-all scared friend Monica, played by Patricia Olvera, who can’t help but believe in the possibility of the story’s truth and warns Laura against all the bravery and scepticism that she parades in the face of the locals against this legend of the monster. As the night progresses, she is rejected by more locals for the evil she apparently awakened. After an unpleasant interaction with one, Laura, again against her friend’s advice, sets out to leave the town for good. She makes her way through the woods in the middle of the night, of all things. Misfortune befalls them, to no one’s but her surprise. Andrii Lantukh’s cinematography falls short of extracting the potential of at least one good scene, though the complaint is soon appeased by a striking two-shot close-up of Laura and the monster. Quijano makes good use of sound design to play on your senses during the film’s climax. While the rest of the film can be somewhat lacklustre in terms of fear, the climax holds up through its rather unusual visuals and the way in which it plays out.
Luis Quijano’s 9: 48-minute film delivers a forceful message of the power of the mind and courage, though there is a certain irony (but perhaps not far removed from reality) in seeing a devout Christian rubbishing the very idea of a demonic monster.