The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

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'La Llorona' here is a bit of a side quest of a film. While it doesn't count for anything in any of the 'Conjuring' lore, there is still a connection to the 'Conjuring' universe. If I were to compare it to something everyone knows, it's to the 'Conjuring' universe what 'The Eternals' is to the MCU - connected very loosely. In this case, it's the use of Father Perez (Tony Amendola) from 'Annabelle' in a cameo appearance. Otherwise, this story stands very much alone, a little more like a 'Halloween III.'

Just a couple of months before 'Annabelle Comes Home' was released, this dropped, just one week before 'Avengers: Endgame' managed to drown it with pure MCU power. all in all, it seems to be the movie of the franchise that gets overlooked the most, and I have to say, I can understand why. This is an interestingly average horror flick in my opinion. There's a lot of cliche going on here, but it's not without the odd moment or two that satisfies the senses on a fun, horrific level. The trouble is, those moments are few and far between, and a lot of the rest of it is... almost annoying in a way.

The whole thing opens with an origin story, keeping it brief and to the point, as the viewer gets to know the legend a little better. Long story short, in Mexican folklore, La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) is a vengeful spirit who roams bodies of water while mourning her children, whom she drowned, jealous that her husband was a cheating jerk. Now, legend has it that whoever hears her crying suffers great misfortune, bad luck, and possibly even death. Movie-wise, it's more about her finding more kids to drown, which is also part of the legend, and the main focus here.

In 1973, LA, a caseworker named Anna Tate-Garcia (Linda Cardellini) arrives at client Patricia Alvarez's (Patricia Velasquez) house for a welfare check, only to find her two children, Tomas (Aiden Lewandowski) and Carlos (Oliver Alexander) locked inside a closet. Patricia attacks Anna for opening the door, and the kids even ask Anna to keep the door shut so "she can't hurt them." Of course, this prompts the accompanying cops to arrest Patricia, and the kids are taken to a shelter. Little does anyone know that Patricia isn't who they were hiding from.

Meanwhile, Anna's kids, Chris (Roman Christou) and Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) each have paranormal encounters with a mysterious crying woman in a white dress, who ultimately turns out to be the malevolent spirit of La Llorona, now chasing after Anna's kids. Their only hope, and I personally found this kinda funny, is an ex-priest named Rafael (Raymond Cruz), who knows the legend inside out. If Cruz's name sounds familiar, it's because he played the unforgettably suspenseful and nerve-racking character of Tuco in 'Breaking Bad.'

I can't get Tuco out of my head looking at Cruz, and it's very hard to accept him as a "good guy," especially when he still carries that "f*ck-around-and-find-out" aura with him. But for as amazing as he was in 'Breaking Bad,' I just don't know how to take him here. It's almost confusing. I also mentioned "annoying" earlier, and that's a bit more of a personal matter. While there's a bit of bad parenting that sticks out, for me, Chris' scream was like nails on a chalkboard, and it happens often enough you kinda want La Llorona to get him.

While I may be nitpicky in some regards, one also can't deny how cliche the movie is, with all of its scares more or less expected, and almost no mystery or subtlety to the figure of La Llorona, herself. It just doesn't have the same heart as the 'Conjuring' movies or the later 'Annabelle' movies, and in a way, it's kind of unfortunate for the series that director Michael Chaves has taken it all over, and the films under his name have been pretty well average at best. But the "beginning of the end?" Not quite. In this guy's humble opinion, we've got one more really fun, non-Chaves chapter to go!

1/5

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