The Curse of La Llorona Movie Review

The following is a movie review “The Curse of La Llorona” by Marc Primo.

Release date: 19 April 2019 (USA)

Director: Michael Chaves

Language: English

Production companies: Atomic Monster, New Line Cinema

Producers: Michael Clear, Walter Hamada, Michelle Morrissey, Dave Neustadter

After The Conjuring was released in cinemas in 2013 and spawned a series of prequels, sequels, and spinoffs, a new ghoul from the same production lineage is out to haunt viewers in Michael Chaves’s The Curse of La Llorona.

La Llorona (the crying woman) is the mythical ghost of a 17th century Mexican woman who murdered her children as retribution for her husband’s infidelity. In the present, the bothered soul takes away the children of the living in terrifying fashion.

The story revolves around social worker and recent widow Anna Tate-Garcia (Linda Cardellini), who takes on the case of a mother whose children are allegedly tormented by La Llorona. As the skeptic that she is of the paranormal, Anna dismisses the issue as another parental abuse case, not knowing that she herself will fall prey to the wrath of the terrifying white-veiled specter.

Many viewers will probably compare The Curse of La Llorona to Andy Muschietti’s Mama from 2013, or Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook from 2014, but the latest child-tormenting horror from the creators of the Saw, The Conjuring and Insidious franchises has something new to offer audiences.

With well-designed effects and visual silhouettes that make its jump scares effective, the film reimagines the traditional horror tactics of old and gives them fresh takes. Elements of suspense succeed in making viewers flinch or even turn away from the screen, as the dark yet enigmatic manifestations of La Llorona make her one of the more poetically haunting ghost characters in recent memory.

The film succeeds in being both visually beautiful and frightening, but genre fans might just find its story a bit too shallow. While many horror flicks derive scare tactic formulas from other films and tweak them a bit, The Curse of La Llorona is way too familiar in terms of its storytelling. Viewers are not spared from second-hand exorcism scenes and even washed-up characters like Anna, which somehow limited Cardellini’s acting prowess.

Screenwriters Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis took on the legend of La Llorona with great ideas in mind. Unfortunately, those ideas were dominated by jump scares more than a compelling story with interesting characters for viewers to engage themselves on. The dialogues are simply injected as bait for more jump scares, with some even bordering on the ridiculous.

The film offers a brooding look into the dilemma of the film’s female martyrs (La Llorona and Anna), but the superficial storytelling fails to instill the melancholy that viewers deserve. Some film theorists think that the lightness of its story was intended so that it can be linked to The Conjuring universe, but even that is a long shot.

Another thing missing from the film is the cultural relevance of La Llorona. While her legend is of Mexican descent, there are no actual connections linking her cultural identity and folklore to the story. This could have given the entire film more weight and credibility.

The Curse of La Llorona succeeds in getting audiences to the edge of their seats, occasionally leaving them catching their breath. The film starts with an uncomfortable scene as if to prepare viewers for more mind twisters along the way. Sadly, it ends as just another scream flick filled with good jump scares, but unworthy of a sequel or substantial post-film discussions.

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