THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA: Hollywood’s Bland Attempt At Mexican Folklore

The horror genre has had plenty of fans excited in recent years, as with Jordan Peele’s recent releases, some Stephen King adaptations, and a few quality films out of Blumhouse Productions. With an array of horror films to look out for, there is one franchise that always seems to have fans most intrigued — The Conjuring Universe. The latest semi-addition to the cinematic universe comes in the form of The Curse of La Llorona, and it’s exactly what you would expect out of the franchise. 

Director Michael Chaves’ first full-length feature film is centered around an old folktale renowned in Mexican culture. Linda Cardellini (Green Book, Scooby Doo) helms the film as the lead actress and is supported by plenty of capable performers in this mysterious, sort-of-outrageous narrative. If you’re a thrill seeker, and by that I mean if you enjoy jump scares, then this film might just be for you.

As The Story Goes

As mentioned, The Curse of La Llorona is based on an old folktale stemming from Mexico. As the story goes, a woman in the 1600s drowned her kids in an attempt to spite her husband, and once she realized the horrible deed she had committed, she drowned herself thereafter. In turn, the woman becomes an evil spirit, known as La Llorona, in search for kids to drown all the same.

Unfortunately for Anna (Cardellini), the spirit has latched on to her and her family, and La Llorona wants nothing more than to take her children. The film progresses with similar beats and horror film clichés fans are sure to recognize, but at least they’re being done with a new antagonist at the forefront. 

Elevated Horror

As you’ve probably guessed, this film is not the next horror masterpiece — in fact, it’s hardly even innovative as a standalone film, but there is some good in it. Linda Cardellini is pretty spectacular in this film, as her suspenseful expressions and confirmative acting help to ground the story, and Raymond Cruz (Breaking Bad) does an adequate job himself as a supporting actor; however, the child actors are what elevate the horror elements in this movie.

With La Llorona’s main targets being children, this film relies heavily on young performers to hypnotize the audience into the narrative. It’s not always easy to bring out stellar performances from child actors, but Roman Christou and Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen essentially nailed it. Their fear affects the audience similarly, and it helps with the suspenseful payoffs.

For what it’s worth, the cinematography did a fine job at getting fans interested in the world built around The Curse of La Llorona. It wasn’t inventive or amazing, but for a film like this, being pretty standard isn’t such a bad thing. With the right amount of dark lighting, somber filters, and eerie backdrops, any horror movie could suffice.

Missed Opportunities

Overall, it’s very unfortunate that this historic piece of folklore was given the treatment seen in this film. Although it borrows from a resonant tale with rich backstory, The Curse of La Llorona feels like nothing more than a cash grab. As with being tied to The Conjuring, it’s also unfortunate that no proceeding film has lived up to the first of the universe.

The direction of this film wasn’t completely a lost cause, but for the most part, the middle and last half of the movie were filled with cheap jump scares. Sure, sometimes they were creepy, and there are a few moments where you may jump in your seat, but that’s all I can really say about it. The Conjuring series is riddled with horror tropes — particularly the slight misdirections right before the ‘ah!’ moment — and The Curse of La Llorona does not even attempt to change that formula.

Undoubtedly, what this film suffers from most is a weak script. This movie had so much potential to be different considering its freakish backstory, but it feels like the writer’s room hardly cared about it. We’re basically given the same old house haunting type of story, filled with unthoughtful dialogue and dull development.

The film isn’t very dialogue heavy, and I’d consider this a good thing because the exchanges seen in it feel cheap and exaggerated. Plenty of the lines are too on the nose, as some character lines tend to feel like manual readings. There are no deeper meanings or psychological elements at play here, and what the audience hears is occasionally stale and unconceivable.

The Curse of La Llorona: Conclusion

No one asked for The Conjuring Universe, but The Curse of La Llorona could have at least offered something interesting to the franchise — it’s unfortunate that this film was the end product. With horror movie clichés lurking around every corner and a script that’s difficult to digest, The Curse of La Llorona will likely meet the void where bad horror flicks go to be forgotten. If you’re into jump scares, you’ll at least have a better time than I did.

What did you think of The Curse of La Llorona? What’s your favorite Conjuring Universe movie?

The Curse of La Llorona was released on April 19, 2019 in the US, and is set to be released on May 3, 2019 in the UK.