Logan Sork Film Reviews
The Curse of La Llorona
The legend of La Llorona was something I was unfamiliar with until a couple of years ago. Funny enough, it was actually a haunted house attraction that introduced me to the Mexican urban legend about the ghost of a woman who drowned her children and is now cursed to wonder the world. The one thing that I thought of after leaving that attraction was “wow, that would make a great horror film”! With a creepy premise like that, how had Hollywood failed to capitalize on this iconic urban legend. Well now they have and while the film starts out great and has a couple of decent moments, it ultimately drowns itself in bad jump scares, a lack of creepy atmosphere and a poor script.
The Curse of La Llorona is directed by Michael Chaves and is the latest installment in the Conjuring Universe. The film follows Anna (Linda Cardellini), a case worker for child protective services who is following up on a case involving a Patricia Alverez (Patricia Velasquez) and her two children. After Anna deems the mother unfit as there are signs of abuse, the two children are taken to an orphanage. Anna gets a call later that night and learns that the two boys have drowned in the nearby waterway. While everyone suspects Patricia, she is adamant that the one responsible is a woman named La Llorona, a spirit of Mexican folklore who drowned her own children in a fit of rage who now wonders the earth seeking children to replace the ones she lost. Anna is initially skeptical, but changes when she and her children begin experiencing strange occurrences. Unsure of what to do, she contacts a local priest (Tony Amendola) who informs her that La Llorona has marked her children as her next victims. Anna must now work with a spiritual guide (Raymond Cruz) to stop La Llorona before she takes away her children.
What the film has going for it are strong performances from the cast. Linda Cardellini is excellent in the role of a mother struggling to protect her children from a demonic entity while also dealing with her own personal demons. The child actors in this film are also excellent, with Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Roman Christou both turning in great performances as Anna’s daughter and Son respectively. The supporting performers are also excellent as both Patricia Velazquez and Tony Amendola bringing it all for their roles. There are even some nice light-hearted moments brought to the table from Raymond Cruz as a seasoned spiritual guide.
The setup for this film is also excellently done. The opening scene depicts the origins of La Llorona in disturbing detail, promising a terrifying premise on which the film mostly delivers. This is followed by an excellent look into the way that the spirit creates a sense of hysteria in those she preys on with a look into the case Anna is working on. There are also several excellent sequences in which the ways La Llorona preys on her victims are shown, proving how terrifying she can truly be. The film also sets up a nice sense of dread as Anna learns more and more about the demented spirit and must come to terms with the horrible situation she and her family have been placed in. The first act of this film is really well done and promises for an intriguing thrill ride.
But then the second act begins and the film screeches to a halt. The suspenseful atmosphere and well-paced investigation are put on hold as we watch (for what seems like an eternity) our characters wonder around various places only for something spooky to jump out at them. Now, I’m aware it’s a horror film and we need moments like this, but what other horror films do well is find a way for the scares to factor into the story. With this film, the story is put on hold just so we can watch our leads get trapped in a series of poorly executed scares. There is also a noticeable change in atmosphere as we move from the grungy downtown streets of Los Angeles to an otherwise bland looking suburban neighborhood home. Had the strong atmosphere remained, I may have overlooked the poorly executed jump scares as there would’ve been even a small amount of suspense, but alas it is not true. By putting the story on hold and changing locations, the film loses what suspense it had managed to conjure up.
Things unfortunately don’t get any better as the film progresses. The main problems can be found in the script, as the writers barely scratch the surface of any of the ideas they introduce. The legend of La Llorona has been around for a long time, yet her back story and motivation are ultimately left undiscussed say for a few flashbacks and a couple of exposition dumps. The film also does little to nothing to develop our main characters. Despite some amazing performances, we learn very little about these people and as a result cannot form a connection with them, draining any suspense left out of the horror sequences. The film also cannot ever seem to decide on how it wants to end. One moment the spirit is defeated, then it isn’t, then it is, then it isn’t and so on. The direction also gets noticeably sloppier as the film progresses, with certain sequences seeming quite strange when compared to the ones that came before.
In the end, this movie is a bit of a disappointment. Despite having an impressive start and a few good performances, the film ultimately loses its focus and becomes quite boring. This can be attributed to the overabundance of poorly executed jump scares, lack of atmosphere and the surface level script. It’s such a shame to, because this film had such potential to capitalize on the creepy legend. Let us hope this story gets another chance to be used to it’s terrifying potential. And let’s hope the film that comes from it won’t be cursed like this one.
4/10