In Too Old To Die Young (2019), the Amazon television series directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, a corrido (Mexican folk song) is performed about the character Yaritza whose vengeful acts against men who exploit women have earned her the soubriquet 'The High Priestess of Death' and made her a figure of contemporary urban myth. An enigmatic character, Yaritza was found wandering in the Mexican desert as a child by a drug baron and subsequently adopted by him, becoming his daughter, lover and bodyguard. Ostensibly loyal, Yaritza is revealed after the baron's death to have an agenda of her own.

The mystery surrounding Yaritza is deepened by her association with magic, particularly her practice of the Tarot, a card from which lends its name to each episode of the series. Yaritza is presented as a supernatural entity which has taken on human form in order to initiate a chain of events involving Mexican drug cartels that will bring around the apocalyptic ruin of the United States. Yaritza is paralleled by Diana, a hieratic 'victim advocate' who also arranges acts of vengeance, assisted by other supernatural entities she calls 'The Beings', and who has prophetic glimpses of Yaritza's apocalypse.

In this paper, I discuss the series with reference to the 'Folk Horror Revival' initiated by Andy Paciorek and Darren Charles in 2015, and also in the context of current anxieties over 1). the influence of Mexican drug cartels on American society and 2). immigration into America, particularly from Mexico.