The Curse of La Llorona

Starring: Linda Cardellini, Roman Christou, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, Tony Amendola, Ramond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez, Sean Patrick Thomas
Directed by: Michael Chaves
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A social worker (Linda Cardellini) and her family becomes terrorized by a supernatural entity after experiencing strange events during a house call.

Review:

Tim: I love what Universal is doing with their extended Conjuring franchise. It's such a cool idea to connect a bunch of different horror movies. Unfortunately, outside of the Conjuring movies themselves, the products have been lackluster. The Annabelle movies were disappointing, as was The Nun. I was actually pretty shocked watching this movie- I didn't realize The Curse of La Llorona was set in the same world. That was really cool. Unfortunately, this movie follows the path of all the non-Conjuring movies by being disappointing. Truth be told, as I sat down to write this review, I tried to remember what this movie was all about. It was a total blank. Then, I remembered the wrong movie before finally connecting back to this film. All that to say, this movie is generic and utterly forgettable.

This movie feels completely redundant with dozens of other films. A family led by a single mom is terrorized by a supernatural force that seems focused on her children. Priests get involved and try to perform an exorcism. I think there is an attempt to uncover the mystery of what this evil being is, but that could be a different movie. Seriously, it all blends together. I feel like I've seen at least a dozen movies that are some slight variation of this exact same thing. This movie doesn't do nearly enough to differentiate itself from any of them. Annabelle has a creepy doll and The Nun has a creepy nun. This one has a woman with a sheet wrapped over her face and enjoys drowning. It's a clear step down from even those other disappointing movies. This is the danger of this expanded Conjuring universe. The antagonistic force might change, but it's starting to feel all too familiar. There was nothing in this movie that felt in the least unique or interesting, or even anything we haven't seen dozens of times before. I didn't even get the sense that this movie tried to do anything different or be anything other than completely ordinary. It's a very uninspired entry into the franchise.

I like Linda Cardellini and she does a fairly decent job in the lead role. The script doesn't help her out by giving her anything interesting to do, but she still manages to be enjoyable. I liked seeing Tony Amendola here, although his role is fairly small. Raymond Cruz was one of the highlights of the film, although keep in mind it's relative. His performance was a bit odd, but he mostly worked in the context of the film. Still, as a whole, the cast was less than stellar.

So much of the problem here is the script. It's simply a poorly written, generic mess. Characters say stupid, illogical things. The plot follows all the expected moves, resulting in a predictable story that generates very few surprises. The movie over-relies on jump scares. Seriously, this movie just racks up the horror movie cliches. It might not be a terrible movie, but by choosing to be an utterly forgettable one, it risks damaging the Conjuring brand. At this point, the franchise has twice as many disappointing movies as effective ones. That's pretty bad.

The Curse of La Llorona (man, that title is annoying and a mouthful to say) is a bad, disappointing movie. I enjoyed its connection to the larger world, but the movie itself is poorly made and completely unmemorable.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Nun