The Spanish psychological horror film The Wailing (El Llanto) is, on the surface, a deceptively simple tale: generations of women haunted by the same malevolent entity intent on abducting them. But this deceptively bare premise is only the tip of the iceberg. The film’s true power lies in its meticulous unraveling of mystery, and in the actresses whose performances breathe life, dread, and humanity into each scene.
The story follows Andrea (Exposito), a fiercely curious young woman drawn into the web of terror, Marie (Oliver), whose elusiveness and quiet terror hint at buried secrets, and Camilla (Malena Villa), a voyeuristic filmmaker documenting the unexplainable horrors that ripple through their lives. Andrea exists in the current year, while Camilla and Marie’s stories move back to the late ’90s.
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We start with Andrea, whose friends, studies, and passionate relationship with her boyfriend take up most of her attention. But when she keeps seeing the same unnerving older man appearing in pictures and videos of her, she becomes obsessed with uncovering his origins. And she might not like where that leads. Midway through the film, we move to Camilla, a film student attempting to impress her professor by offering a short film that defies his expectations; a film that voyeuristically follows a young woman named Marie, with whom she becomes obsessed. As she grapples with the ethics of observation versus intervention, she also notices Marie might be haunted by a presence only seen through the lens of her camera.
After befriending Marie, Marie begins to struggle with disbelief and eventually a fear that Camilla might be right. All of the women’s paths converge in chilling, sometimes surreal encounters that blur reality and nightmare, revealing echoes of generational trauma and shared fear. Each character’s journey is both intensely personal and universally unsettling, as the film weaves a tapestry of suspense, curiosity, and dread.
The success of The Wailing lies in its careful orchestration and unwavering commitment to psychological tension. Director Pedro Martin-Calero gives the women center stage, letting his camera linger on their confusion, passion, and mounting terror. Unnerving moments are carefully deployed, appearing only when absolutely necessary, making each scare hit with surgical precision. Exposito, Oliver, and Villa deliver performances that are as distinct as they are haunting, embodying recklessness, curiosity, and resistance to the preternatural in ways that feel real and intimate.
Writers Isabel Pena and Martin-Calero deliver a thinking-person’s horror, a slow burn that ensnares you in its grip. The film never hands you every answer, yet it provides enough to keep you invested, anxiously turning pages of the story in your mind. It’s a meditation on shared fear, familial and otherwise, and the way trauma reverberates across generations. The Wailing lingers in your psyche long after the screen goes dark, a masterful exploration of terror that is as cerebral as it is visceral.
The Wailing will be available on VOD starting December 5, 2025.
