Much of this movie’s story and overall execution is right in line with the Conjuring-verse, but now this entry - the sixth in the franchise - has further exposed the series’ increasing reliance on formula. This questioning of the movie’s laws pulls one out of the story precisely at moments where a viewer shouldn’t be distracted. So what gives? You can either strike this being or you can’t.
La Llorona herself can at times be as corporeal as a vampire or zombie and then as ethereal and intangible as a ghost. But these sequences also try the movie’s own logic, where you’re questioning the rules of physical contact with a spirit. While the film treats Rafael as a minor league substitute for the Warrens, he nevertheless capably serves his function as its tropey paranormal investigator/spirit world warrior.ĭirector Michael Chaves assembles some suitably suspenseful set-pieces, particularly whenever it’s just the kids going up against La Llorona (most notably the scene in the family car and another one where poor Samantha thinks it’s mommy washing her hair). They receive an ally - and the film a welcome jolt of puckishness - in Rafael Olvera (a sincere Raymond Cruz), a curandero (a traditional healer) whose old school arsenal against La Llorona generates a few chuckles but his deadpan machismo even more so. Simply put, you care about this family and want to see them make it through this ordeal okay.
The curse of la llorona on netflix movie#
Together, these three actors make for a sympathetic and believable family unit that roots this otherworldly movie in the human and the relatable. Cardellini has good chemistry with Roman Christou and Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, who ably play her children Chris and Samantha, respectively. This life experience gives her a bit more edge than the Conjuring-verse’s usually suburban or otherwise heretofore untried protagonists. Turns out Patricia wasn’t crazy or abusive towards her kids - she was protecting them from La Llorona! Anna will learn that, as the old adage goes, no good deed goes unpunished.Ĭardellini brings a steeliness and world-weariness to Anna, who was a cop’s wife and is an urban social worker, both of which means she’s already dealt with fear and horrors completely separate from the occult variety. (A supporting character from that film, Father Perez, pops up here to provide the bare minimum of connective narrative tissue between the films.) A solid Linda Cardellini anchors the proceedings as Anna Tate-Garcia, a recently widowed social worker whose tragic intervention in the child welfare of the sons of the disturbed Patricia Alvarez (Patricia Velasquez) unleashes the titular spirit after Anna’s own children. We’ve seen many of this film’s supernatural scenarios before - in this franchise and in bogeyman/haunting films in general - but in the end The Curse of La Llorona ekes by due to its occasional playfulness and the sympathy engendered by its main family.Īfter a brief but brutal prologue set in 1673 Mexico - where we see how “The Weeping Woman” of Latin American folklore came to be by drowning her own children in a jealous rage, thus cursing herself to roam forever as a specter searching for other kids to kill - the film resumes in Los Angeles 1973, a period which Conjuring-verse fans will know is not long after the events of the LA-based Annabelle. Read below to see what The Hollywood Reporter's critics wrote about this Friday's releases.The Curse of La Llorona is set on the outskirts of the blockbuster Conjuring franchise, which may lend it a mainstream commercial appeal but also a by-now deadened familiarity thanks to the series’ well-worn formula. Other titles include Grass, a Korean dramedy directed by acclaimed filmmaker Hong Sang-soo about a woman who sits in a cafe and listens to the dramatic conversations around her Rafiki, an African tale of two girls from rival families who have to hide their forbidden love from their conservative society and Red Joan, starring Judi Dench, the true story of a spy who fought to save her country from peril.
This weekend, horror fans can go check out The Curse of La Llorona, a modern take on the ancient Mexican legend, starring Linda Cardellini, while Fast Color is a supernatural sci-fi pic that follows a young woman on an unknowing road to self-discovery after discovering she has supernatural powers.