The Curse of La Llorona (2019) Review

 

The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

Set in 1970s LA, The Curse of La Llorona follows Anna and her kids after a demonic presence is unleashed on them following a failed attempt to save a previous pair of kids during a social work incident.

I remember seeing the previews of this (and there were many) and feeling no great urge to watch it. And even afterwards, I frankly still don’t feel much from it. This movie sadly falls into the trap that most “horror” films do in the modern era and that’s that they aren’t scary, nor original. This feels like every Annabelle/Conjuring movie that has ever been put out (which in a twist for me, it is in the same universe) and it’s uninspired, not creative at all, and relies on cheap jump scares and stupid actions by the protagonists to movie the story along. The first half of the movie is just everyone being secretive and lying to one another and themselves about La Llorona, and then the second half is about as cliché as it gets with the mystical former preacher coming in to help stop the evil entity. Plus it’s needlessly a period film, that feels like it’s there for no reason, as everything about this film is modern.

All that in mind though, the movie has some great performances from Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, Roman Christou, and Linda Cardellini, who has seen a big career resurgence as of late, and for good reason. She’s convincing and plays her role well, breaking the fearless parent stereotype and actually showing genuine fear for her and her kids.

Produced by James Wan, who I personally am not big on because of his monotonous style that every one of his films has in terms of story and plot development, the movie acts as a tense and rough around the edges spin off into the Conjuring-verse that never really finds it footing and falls flat in it’s attempts to be creative. It was unbelievably predictable and honest to goodness, felt like it could’ve been Annabelle 4, but with a different supernatural entity terrorizing the main family, which is sad considering it’s a neat concept that had a lot of potential.

4/10