Review of The Curse of La Llorona (2019) by Player2-Water — 19 Apr 2019

E-Value: 5.

Acting: 7.

Plot: 4.

Although marketed as a standalone movie, The Curse of La Llorona is actually the sixth instalment in The Conjuring Universe due to Tony Amendola reprising his role as Father Perez from 2014’s Annabelle and even at one point, mentioned about his experience with the haunted doll. This movie is also a unique instalment because La Llorona, which is an evil entity from Mexican folklore, does not have anything to do with the Warrens at all in real life.

Set in the year of 1973, Anna Garcia (Cardellini) is a social worker and a widow with two children, Chris and Samantha, living in Los Angeles. One day while working, she and the social service discover that Patricia Alvarez (Velásquez) locked up her two children in a closet which she claims that she done so to protect them from La Llorona (Ramirez).

Patricia’s children are taken from her by the social service while she is sent to jail for alleged child abuse. After her children mysteriously died in a river, Patricia blames Anna for her indirect role in her children’s death and she said La Llorona is responsible for the cause. At first, Anna does not believe until La Llorona set her sight on her next target: Anna’s beloved children.

To be honest, this movie is a little bit scary than the first Annabelle movie and 2018’s The Nun. At times, I got freaked out during some of the jump scares. The good thing about this movie is it is a little better than those two movies but still not good enough compared to the first two Conjuring and 2017’s Annabelle: Creation. Michael Chaves has done a good job as director in his directorial debut which kind of makes sense that why James Wan chose him to direct The Conjuring 3. Linda Cardellini’s acting is very good but her character does not have enough development and so does many other characters in the movie.

However, the plot of the movie is very underdeveloped. For example, the movie does not explain how Patricia Alvarez and her children were attached by La Llorona. How does a demonic entity from Mexico ended up in Los Angeles? It does not make sense. If Patricia and her children are from Mexico, it would have make sense that they were attached by the demon back in the old country but this is purely my speculation, not to be taken as an official lore. There was no explanation or any backstory at all to improve the plot. The only backstory in the movie is the basic history of La Llorona and that is about it.

Since Michael Chaves have been selected to direct The Conjuring 3, he definitely needs to step up his game by having better writers and focus on improving the plot, screenplay, script and character development otherwise that upcoming movie will suffer a sequelitis. Last but not least, this movie would probably be better off as a standalone movie instead of being part of The Conjuring Universe.