The Curse of La Llorona ** (2019, Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez) – Movie Review

Director Michael Chaves’s 2019 supernatural horror thriller The Curse of La Llorona is a modestly scary and entertaining spin off from The Conjuring universe. It does not have a lot of credibility – how could it have? – and has trouble getting you to suspend disbelief, but is is quite enjoyable in a spook-house fairground attraction kind of way.

However, it plays classily and realistically. It is a slick and smooth ride, as you would expect from the producers of The Conjuring Universe.

Without Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, it doesn’t seem quite as good, and the film is just one long series of now you see her, now you don’t scare moments. Nevertheless, it passes the time okay, and doesn’t outstay its welcome at just 93 minutes.

Linda Cardellini works hard to bring authority and interest to her star role as social worker Anna Tate-Garcia who finds herself and her own small kids (Roman Christou, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) mortally tormented by a vengeful spirit from long ago, La Llorona (Marisol Ramirez), whose killer instincts are passed on to them after Anna ignores the warning of a troubled mother suspected of child endangerment.

Raymond Cruz enjoys his neat little role as disillusioned priest Rafael Olvera, who is referred to her by doomy Father Perez (Tony Amendola) and may be able to keep the evil at bay. You may remember that Father Perez appeared in the first standalone Annabelle movie, the film’s most obvious reference to the rest of the Conjuring films.

There are three outstanding set-piece horror sequences, as La Llorona appears behind the daughter in her bath, as she attacks the two kids in the car, and as she mounts a full-on assault on the family and disillusioned priest at their home at the finale. Unfortunately, the first two scenes are spoiled by their extended use in the trailer. Obviously they have to sell their movie, but less is more in trailers.

It is interesting to have a middle aged mother, with kids and a job, at the centre of a horror movie, and a middle aged exorcist to help out, quite different from the usual teens in peril idea. It is unusual to have an evil spirit targeting children in a horror movie and a mother desperately trying to save them. But this of course goes back to The Exorcist, and The Curse of La Llorona is even set around the same time as that movie.

[Spoiler alert] However, these kids Chris and Samantha (Roman Christou, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) are immensely resourceful and switched-on, unlike the daughter Regan (Linda Blair) in The Exorcist, who is only there as a victim. We don’t have to worry too much about Chris and Samantha. They keep very cool when La Llorona strikes.

Of course the monster never dies and La Llorona is heard crying at the end of the closing credits. That’s good because a sequel must already be in the works. The Curse of La Llorona was cheap to make at $9,000,000, and profitable, grossing $44,600,000 in the US, and with a cumulative worldwide gross of $87,330,045.

The Conjuring Universe is going to keep the producers Gary Dauberman and James Wan busy and well off for quite a while.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com