Since Marvel has seemingly taken over Hollywood, numerous
cinematic universes have come and failed in the wake of their success. The Dark
Universe of Universal crashed before it ever began. The DC Extended Universe
has rebranded at least three times by now. And a handful of classical King
Arthur and Robin Hood attempts were misguided from the start. Yet somehow, the
Conjuring Universe, of all things, has become the successful franchise of the
bunch, even if the quality has started to decline.
In 1970s Los Angeles, the legendary ghost La Llorona is
stalking the night -- and the children. Ignoring the eerie warning of a
troubled mother, a social worker (Linda Cardellini) and her own kids (Roman Christou, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) are drawn into a frightening supernatural
realm. Their only hope of surviving La Llorona's deadly wrath is a
disillusioned priest (Raymond Cruz) who practices mysticism to keep evil at
bay.
The simplicity and formulaic model of The Curse of La
Llorona fits right alongside the other Conjuring spin-offs. Not too
complex, not too steeped in themes, just a little horror film with a loose connection
to the Warrens. If nothing else, you can hope for a decent design for the
titular La Llorona, and on that front, it delivers. But outside of a fun use of
reflection here there, everything is pretty standard horror, and without a
solid narrative, the whole thing feels weak.
From a performance standpoint, everyone is fairly solid.
Linda Cardellini gets the role of Horror Movie Mother #530, but she at least
does well with the limited material. However, the real standout is Raymond
Cruz. While he doesn’t come into the film for quite a while, when he does, he
is a lot of fun. If The Curse of La Llorona does anything, hopefully in
spawns his appearance in more spin-off films.
The Curse of La Llorona isn’t awful, but it is not
anywhere near good either. It joins other franchise entries like Annabelle or
The Nun as critical failures that feature such low budgets that their
financial success is almost guaranteed. La Llorona isn’t nearly as terrifying
as the other ghastly antagonists of the franchise, but Raymond Cruz as Rafael
is a delightfully fun despite the rest of the film being pretty drab. It’s not
going to surprise anyone, but there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
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