![the curse of la llorona reviews the curse of la llorona reviews](https://weliveentertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/la-llorona-cover.png)
Alvarez has locked her children in a closet, and their malnutrition means they’re whisked to the hospital while mom is arrested. While it’s refreshing to see her finally make her appearance in a major release, it’s also hindered by the familiarity of the Conjuring universe to which she’s tethered.Īfter a brief opening sequence set in 1673 Mexico, that shows our titular villainess in the act of murdering her children, the narrative jumps ahead 300 years to Los Angeles, where social worker Anna Tate-Garcia ( Linda Cardellini) is called to the home of Patricia Alvarez ( Patricia Valesquez). La Llorona is so prominent in folklore that it’s surprising it’s taken this long to make it to the big screen.
![the curse of la llorona reviews the curse of la llorona reviews](https://image3.mouthshut.com/images/imagesp/925972541s.jpg)
![the curse of la llorona reviews the curse of la llorona reviews](https://resizing.flixster.com/xmuLl-zxy7paj6MB5QX74yuTXKc=/740x380/v2/https://statcdn.fandango.com/MPX/image/NBCU_Fandango/787/786/thumb_31F466ED-80A9-4EF2-83B2-76B130E1E854.jpg)
Hers is a nightmarish bedtime tale to keep children in line. La Llorona kidnaps wandering children that she finds and drowns them, and if you hear her cries then misfortune or death awaits. The ghost of a woman who once drowned her children and spends her afterlife stuck in purgatory, forever weeping for her lost sons. Linda Cardellini is characteristically excellent value and the finale is a rollercoaster so jump scares be damned, The Curse Of La Llorona just about works.The Weeping Woman, or La Llorona, is a haunting figure in Latin American folklore that has terrified generations. The Curse Of La Llorona initially struggles at distinguishing itself from its peers in the Conjuring stable, with its familiar veiled phantom, but there’s enough of a hook to keep you invested. There’s a lot of buttock-clenching fun to be had in that last half hour and it’s just bananas enough to elevate the whole thing. After enlisting the services of curandero Rafael (played by Raymond Cruz, who adds a wholly inappropriate dose of raffish, comedic charm that somehow works) at the eleventh hour, Chaves ups the intensity and allows everything to hit the fan. Chaves parcels out his moments of horror rather haphazardly, at first utilising jump scares for the most part before changing tact during the climactic battle against the ghost. It’s fortunate, then, that The Curse Of La Llorona’s final act lifts a mediocre horror into something rather thrilling.
#The curse of la llorona reviews movie#
It’s a solid basis for a horror movie – after all, some of the best horror uses motherhood as a starting point – but The Curse Of La Llorona never capitalises on Anna and Patricia’s parallel paths, and thematically it doesn’t go anywhere. Her path soon crosses with that of Patricia Alvarez, a fellow single mother of two who knows La Llorona’s wrath all too well and warns Anna that La Llorona will soon have her gimlet eyes set on her kids.
![the curse of la llorona reviews the curse of la llorona reviews](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDhiZjEwZjEtNTU3YS00NDI0LThlM2MtNTlkN2NkNDdiZWZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTA4MzY3Mw@@._V1_.jpg)
#The curse of la llorona reviews professional#
With her job centring around helping displaced children, it’s quickly apparent where La Llorona appears in the Venn diagram of Anna’s professional and personal lives. La Llorona is not an insignificant legend and despite placing its lead character adjacent to Latinx culture Anna always feels like a trespasser in someone else’s story. While Cardellini nails the few moments Anna is allowed to grieve, it’s hard to feel like this is her story. Linda Cardellini, a terrific actress who has played second fiddle to a slew of Hollywood men for the last five years, finally gets a lead part as Anna Tate-Garcia, a widowed social worker in the 70s trying in vain to juggle her work and her two children. Where The Curse Of La Llorona really struggles is in both retaining the Latin American roots and connecting it the present day. It’s a fascinating enough old wives’ story, about a woman who drowned her children in a fit of rage and now roams for eternity spitefully targeting other people’s offspring. Using the Mexican folk tale of La Llorona as the basis for a mainstream American horror was never an inherently bad idea. Fortunately, The Nun and The Curse Of La Llorona are unique enough in spirit (though, um, not unique in their identical looking spirits) to never feel like carbon copies of each but that doesn’t stop The Curse Of La Llorona from feeling more than a little bedevilled. His ever-expanding world, kick-started by The Conjuring back in 2013, is adding more and more ghouls to its Avengers-style roster and it was only time before there were similarities. It was a risky move by James Wan to release two horror films set in the same universe about two pale-faced bogeywomen mere months apart.