Filmmaker Michael Chaves’ supernatural horror film “The Curse of La Llorona” is the 6th installment of the ‘The Conjuring’ cinematic universe. Co-produced by James Wan, the story of the film, as the name suggests, is based on Mexican lore, and hence is not based around characters we have seen before.
“The Curse of La Llorona”, also known as The Weeping Woman, is set in the 1970s and follows a single mother Anna who works as a social worker, and who must save her two children from an evil supernatural entity.
In one case, when Anna visits one of the family over the concerns of the welfare of the children, she finds disturbing details of two kids of the house being locked up. The mother is then arrested with suspicion of abuse, and the kids are then sent to social care.
Well, this is where the story is about to take its supernatural turn when the bodies of both the kids are recovered from a nearby stream. How strange it may sound, this is when the social worker unknowingly enters the space of an ancient Latin American evil entity who is banished from the gates of heaven for killing her own kids, and for ages, her soul is taking some sort of revenge by killing other’s children.
Here is the trailer of ‘The Curse of La Llorona
While the folklore is much old, it is still believed in many parts of Latin America. The actual story though varies from place to place, the gist of the tale remains the same as a terrifying poltergeist attacking kids. Nevertheless, looking at the story and the kind of horror films we have watched in the last few years, “The Curse of La Llorona” is definitely a story to be told.
However, when we talk about ‘The Conjuring’ or the ‘Annabelle’ film series, this film is not that scary. Probably director Michael Chaves was in two minds to either make the story with loads of terrifying moments or tell a classic tale with many atmospheric elements. His idea of relying more on jump scares does not really work here.
Moreover, the story also does not go deep into the characters. While the performances of the actors are decent, there is not enough explanation or development on the life of the side characters, like the lady who lost her two kids, the priest of the local church who advises Anna to consult a faith healer, and also the faith healer who finally helped Anna in fighting the evil spirit.
Moreover, while we get a couple of glimpses to connect the film with ‘The Conjuring’ franchise, there is nothing concrete in the storyline. Also, too many jumpscares many times ruin the essence of narration and end up not making the end product creepy enough. Compared to “The Curse of La Llorona”, we must say that ‘The Nun’ was much better in terms of treatment.
Genres: Horror, Supernatural
Director: Michael Chaves
Cast: Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velásquez, Marisol Ramirez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, Roman Christou, Tony Amendola
Writers: Mikki Daughtry, Tobias Iaconis
Producers: James Wan, Gary Dauberman, Emile Gladstone
Studio: Warner Bros. New Line
Release Date/Year: April 19, 2019
Images ©Warner Bros.
Where to watch The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
