The Curse of La Llorona, 2019
“So it’s a folktale.” “To some.”
Spook Factor: 👻👻👻 out of 👻👻👻👻👻
As if social work in a huge city isn’t enough, Anna’s work throws her into the world of La Llorona, whose character design is delightfully creepy. A little slow to start, the tension slowly builds throughout the movie, creating an atmosphere of unease at every turn. The jump scares and character design for La Llorona are pretty run-of-the-mill for the Conjuring series, but the hopelessness that the characters feel and plentiful, intense scenes bump this up to 3 out of 5 ghouls from me.
CWs: children being drowned, child death, disturbing imagery (character design), paranormal phenomena
OWs: mild language, children being burned/showing burn marks, loss of a child/children, grief over loss of spouse, shamanism/traditional practices
Jump Scares (in chronological order):
Water drips onto the floor in the hallway.
Chris backs away from the chain link fence.
Chris closes the car door (followed by intense sequence).
Sam picks up the umbrella after it blows into the pool.
Chris and Anna stare at the front door at night.
Chris is blown back from Sam’s open window (followed by intense sequence).
Sam sits up in the bath after rinsing.
Fingers creep behind the bathtub (followed by intense sequence).
“What’s she searching for?” “Us.”
Something drips onto the lantern.
The kids crawl out from under the table (followed by intense sequence).
Sam breaks the line of beans.
Anna swims toward Sam (followed by intense sequences).
What to Expect:
Set in 1970s LA, this movie gives a somewhat modern take on the Mexican folktale. With Tony Amendola reprising his role as Father Perez from Annabelle (2014), we see some interesting correlations between this story and others in the Conjuring series: career-minded parents struggling to balance work and family life while a terrifying specter looms over them, with tension building until everything explodes into chaos.
This is the second film in the Conjuring series that doesn’t include Ed and Lorraine Warren, but their absence isn’t a detriment to the story. Seeing normal, everyday families struggling with the paranormal with no experts to help them creates a special kind of tension where the audience can easily insert themselves into the relatable roles of the characters. Like other Conjuring films, the somewhat overt Christian message could be interpreted as annoying; however, the strong Latinx elements of the story, as well as Father Perez’ appearance, help provide more context for the message so it comes across as less preachy and more cultural.
