BUFFALO, N.Y. — Dim characters fleeing evil in dimly lit rooms makes for a dim time at the cineplex. Why is it that in whatever troubled, benighted universe the characters in horror films inhabit, there are no lightbulbs brighter than about 25 watts? Also, why is it that children in these horror films have an inability to follow directions?
Perhaps, before the horror starts happening, this disobedience is understandable. But once the supernatural entity manifests its malevolent self, why do these apparently idiotic and undisciplined kids disobey not only their instructions, but also disregard any sense of self-preservation?
Well, one character in The Curse of La Llorona, Patricia Alvarez (Velásquez, Mindhunters, Liz in September) seems to understand that children in the horror universe won’t follow directions and locks them in a closet because The Weeping Woman (Ramirez, Circle, Right at Your Door) is after them.
We begin our film in mid-1700s Mexico where a beautiful young woman in a Mexican village has married a local bigshot and given him a couple of children. He turns out to be a philandering creep, so, enraged, she pays him back by drowning their two children, and then, realizing what she had done, herself. Now La Llorona, as she is called, must wander the earth finding children and killing them.
Fast forward to 1973, a year apparently chosen in order to place this story smack into producer James Wan’s (Annabelle) Conjuring Universe. The two Alvarez boys somehow garnered the attention of La Llorona and their mother, Patricia, is seeking to protect them by putting them in a closet and filling the apartment with all kinds of protective graffiti, candles and religious paraphernalia.
She’s also keeping them out of school, which garners the attention of the local Child Protective Services in the person of Social Worker Anna Tate-Garcia (Cardellini, Green Book, Daddy’s Home). Of course, she finds the kids in the closet and sends them off to foster care. They don’t last long.
La Llorona gets them, drowns them, and leaves their bodies in some street. Anna, being a single mom, must take her two kids, Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen (Self/less, TV’s NCIS: New Orleans) and Chris (Roman Christou, in his first big-screen role) along to the scene where the bodies were dumped. It’s not a very nice neighborhood and it is the middle of the night.
Still, Anna, realizing her children are cheerful idiots, tells them to stay in the car while she does whatever it is she has to do. Samantha is asleep, but Chris is wide awake and wants a closer look, so he disobeys his mom, gets out of the car for a better look.
Whilst he is peering about, he hears a woman crying, he turns, and sees La Llorona in all her scary dress and veil.
She spots him and tries to take him, but he manages to make it back into the car.
Finished at the nearby crime scene, Anna shows up back at the car to take her kids home. She's unaware that La Llorona has marked them. Oh, but Anna gets aware in a fast hurry because the Garcia family soon finds itself under supernatural siege.
Finding out from the local parish priest, Father Perez (Tony Amendola, Annabelle, The Devil’s Candy) that the bureaucracy of the Catholic Church would delay any spiritual help from the Church Universal to do any good, she consults a former priest, Rafael Olvera (Cruz, Brothers in Arms, Just Hustle) who specializes in all this supernatural stuff. He accompanies the family to their house, pledging to foil the curse.
As a film, The Curse of La Llorona has a couple of things going for it. There are some very nice performances, especially from Cardellini, Velásquez and Cruz. The lovely Marisol Ramirez spends most of her scenes masked by CGI effects and makeup. When we finally see The Weeping Woman unmasked, revealed as the beautiful woman she once was, she brings us perhaps the most winning scene of the entire film.
That CGI, by the way, is very convincing.
Here's actress Marisol Ramirez without all the special effects and spooky veil.
Director Chavez (Worst Date Ever) has some interesting material to work with, given the story and talent afforded him. In more capable hands, this could have been a movie that was terrifying, yet poignant and emotionally touching.
Instead, Chaves relies on two of the cheapest horror movie gimmicks available: putting children in danger and of jump scares. Now, one might excuse the "kids in danger" technique because that's part and parcel to the story, but Chaves also uses jump scares; lots and lots of jump scares. After a while, it's just tiresome.
Director Chaves has the ingredients for a great film, yet turns in one that is, at best, mediocre. The Curse of La Llorona can’t scare up more than 2 out of 5 boxes of popcorn.
