When Marvel Studios' Avengers came along it opened up new possibilities for film franchise storytelling. A year later more movie studios began their own attempts at crafting such stories. Of all the other movie studios working to build their own shared film universes, Warner Bros. is without a doubt the most aggressive, having not one, not two, but three of these shared universe franchises currently running: the DC Extended Universe, the Monster-verse (Godzilla and King Kong), and the Conjuring Universe.
Whether you like them or not, the Conjuring films have proved to be one of the more successful and enduring attempts at a shared film franchise outside of Marvel Studios. The Conjuring films hearken back to cinema's first ever shared film franchise, the Universal Monsters, if only in sharing its horror roots. One of the strengths of the Conjuring films are their lower budgets, meaning these films don't need to make a ton of money to be successful. And these films being a completely different genre they feel like a different experience than the MCU or DCEU and even the Monsterverse. There's also a different kind of connective tissue binding the films.
THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA marks the first film in the Conjuring franchise that wasn't set up in a previous film. Instead, the film dramatizes a real world Mexican folktale: The Weeping Woman. It's a solid horror film with some genuinely frightening imagery. It's a well executed, if somewhat formulaic, ghost story.
THE PLOT
Social worker Anna visits one of her clients, single mother Patricia Alvarez, only to discover Patricia's two boys locked in a closet. Patricia begs Anna not to open the door or La Llorona will take them. Anna lets the boys out and Patricia is taken into custody. That night both boys are found dead, both drowned in the river. Patricia curses Anna and her two children, crying for La Llorona to take Anna's kids as well. That night Anna's son Chris hears what sounds like a woman crying in the night. A ghostly figure in white stands before him reaching closer with cold pale hands, black tears falling from her yellow eyes.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Ghost stories and possession films have been abundant over the last several years and audiences have grown quite familiar with them and how they typically work nowadays. What sets these movies apart is how well the scares and suspense are crafted within the film. And the frightening imagery. La Llorona functions as a somewhat routine ghost story film, not really providing much new when it comes to this kind of narrative. Where the film's strength lies is in the setup of its scares and suspense. For the most part I felt the scares worked and imbued the whole film with a sense of dread.
And La Llorona herself is an effective antagonist. I'm amazed at how many terrifying figures James Wan's production crew have created. They've definitely cornered the market on female horror characters as they've created more new feminine horror icons in these last six years than perhaps all of horror film history. And La Llorona is definitely worthy of such status.
The Conjuring Connection. Eagle-eyed viewers noticed a familiar looking character in the first trailer, Father Perez (from the first ANNABELLE film). This led many to theorize that the events of La Llorona took place within the Conjuring universe and indeed they do. What's interesting about this is that Warner Bros. didn't market the film as a Conjuring spinoff, but rather as a separate entity. And for the most part the movie is its own story, not reliant on any previous film or narrative. It just happens to be in the same world as the Conjuring and surrounding films. Father Perez and the mention of the Annabelle doll are brief and light of hand. I found this quite refreshing as the film literally carves out its own space in that universe.
Not every story in a shared universe needs to be a piece of a larger narrative.
In many ways this film feels like a "cut and paste" of previous movies though. It feels like we've seen this film done before. But even so, the film is put together well and La Llorona is still very effective and scary. It also leans a bit on the horror trope of stupid kids. Really it's children being children and no matter how many times you tell them not to do something they still do it! It's forgivable because it is a real life phenomenon but still frustrating (but not as frustrating as the stupid kids in A Quiet Place. Sorry, my aggravations as a parent are coming through).
Also, the movie is rated R but it doesn't come close to feeling like an R rated film. After seeing a truly hard R rated film like last week's Hellboy, La Llorona feels like a PG-13 film. I wish it would've taken advantage of its R rating a bit more because it feels like a waste of an R at this point. And the R rating conceivably lessened this film's box office... needlessly! This movie could've been more successful as a PG-13 and not altered at all. It's perplexing. Maybe child murder, even at the hands of a ghost, qualifies for an R rating? Sorry, just trying to figure out why this film was rated R. Even so, the movie is still solid.
THE VERDICT
The Curse of La Llorona is an effective little horror film exploring one of the world's oldest and most frightening pieces of folklore. La Llorona herself is terrifyingly realized on screen and worthy of horror icon status. While being a familiar narrative, the suspense and scares are still well executed. What's James Wan's crew have managed to do with the Conjuring films, La Llorona included, is create very consistent quality from film to film (whether that quality meets your personal standards is up to you). This film doesn't re-invent the wheel or blow your mind, but provides an exhilarating, heart racing, fun time at the movies.
Overall Ranking: 6 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 0 out of 10
For the other films in the Conjuring Universe and similar horror, check out these other posts below!
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