"The Curse of La Llorona" Delivers the Scares

    The horror genre is one of my favorite pools to dip into when it comes to storytelling. If you're an avid reader of this blog, this is not news to you. It's just one of the funnest types of movies to see in a theater. The build up of tension and then that epic release--it's a movie-going staple that I find thrilling, and it's one that has had its fair share of studs and duds. The Curse of La Llorona, the latest spooky flick to hit theaters, dips into folklore and mythology while attempting to deliver some serious scares. I knew nothing about the story, other than this was a tale children were often told by their parents when they misbehaved. From the initial trailers, this movie looked to be your standard spectral encounter, not unlike the ever-growing Conjuring universe. Little did I know that that observation would hit closer to home than expected.

    The Curse of La Llorona is a story about loss and survival. Then again, isn't every ghost/evil spirit/demon story one about loss and survival? In 1600s Mexico, La Llorona--scorned by her lover--kills her children in the river and then is cursed to roam the world in grief and guilt, searching for children to take the place of her own. In her spectral form, she is a creepy-looking woman in a white dress that snatches up children. This film, set in the 1970s, tells the story of a mother, Anna (Linda Cardellini) and her two kids Chris and Samantha (Roman Christou and Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) as they deal with a run-in with this crazed kiddie-snatcher. Narratively it's fairly straightforward, sometimes predictable, but then again most scary movies are. You've got the entire roster of horror movie tropes: people making clearly stupid decisions in the midst of ongoing terror, a frightened priest who turns the family towards more unorthodox methods of survival (more on this in a second), creepy imagery, and jump scares galore. For a run-of-the-mill horror movie, The Curse of La Llorona hits the beats we all expect, yet manages to still be quite fun and entertaining.

    The acting in the movie is good, no real standout in my opinion. The kids do a really great job, and in a film where being over-the-top wouldn't be unheard of, the actors manage to stay fairly grounded. Yes, there are some extremely creepy moments, and at times the expected jump scares fail to make themselves known in order to pay off later (which is always nice), but once it was over and I had a moment to process, there was really nothing new or inventive that the movie brings to the table. Horror movies are a lot like roller coasters; they're scary at some parts, exciting at others, and are sprinkled throughout with moments of release. By the time the credits roll, the experience of watch is what tends to stay in the brain more so than the story. That's not to say that scary movies can't achieve both. I find myself still thinking about moments from The Conjuring and Hereditary, both are examples of great storytelling and extremely effective scares. The Curse of La Llorona isn't that at all, but what it is, is a pretty decent, fun scary roller coaster. Entertaining, but forgettable. If you're a fan of horror movies, then you'll probably dig this movie. Again, I enjoyed myself, however it's not the greatest horror movie I've ever seen.

   

     My biggest gripe with the movie is a specific narrative choice that it makes, one that I'm sort of conflicted, still, on whether I like or dislike. I suppose I should at least say "spoiler alert" although the plot point I'm about to share has no bearing on the narrative at all. So, if you really don't want to know, feel free to stop here. Okay, so remember earlier when I mentioned there was a frightened priest? Well, turns out that that priest is Father Perez (Tony Amendola), the same Father Perez who was in Annabelle. At one point in this movie, Father Perez mentions that he's had experience with strange entities before, flashing back to a quick scene from Annabelle. It's a completely shoe-horned scene that has no bearing on the narrative of La Llorona. The movie would be no different had it not been there. But, turns out that indirectly, The Curse of La Llorona is a part of the Conjuring universe, although doing so while not being a sequel or spin-off. I like and dislike this choice. It's cool because I really dig this idea of a shared horror universe, yet this was so forced and unnecessary that I think it was kind of dumb. There's a huge cultural history with the tales of La Llorona that it could have just stood on its own. If anything, I guess this means that more expanded storytelling could be done within the universe, but do we really need that? Again, it's a mental conundrum and it doesn't deter the fact that though it isn't perfect, The Curse of La Llorona is a fun, straight-forward scary movie, one that fans of the genre will probably enjoy.