#HorrorMovie Review - The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

The Curse of La Llorona was in my top nine 2019 horror movies to see (click here for that post). Something that I had suspected but couldn’t find evidence of at the time of the aforementioned post was the Conjuring Universe connection. The trailer had Father Perez from Annabelle, who is also the same actor from that film, so I had the feeling it was a spin-off of sorts. My suspicions are confirmed, however, unlike other Conjuring Universe movies, this doesn’t have opening or closing scenes with Ed and Lorraine.

This film opens with a scene set in Mexico, sometime in 1673, giving some background to La Llorona, and then it moves forward to 1973. Some of the non-horror bits made no sense to me, like why Anna, a social worker, was called to a crime scene. One horror aspect sticks out that I didn’t understand was why La Llorona’s touch burned, but only on the wrist.

I enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to wait for thrills, and the intensity remained throughout the film. The special effects, in general, were good, and the CGI wasn’t overdone. The makeup, though, wasn’t anything special; I’ve seen something similar done in several other movies over the years. At least, her eyes weren’t black. The costuming and attached effects made up for makeup’s shortcoming, and I congratulate whoever was responsible for the dress La Llorona wore; it’s beautiful.

My mind races with the images that were shown to me and the story itself as I ponder my rating. The Curse of La Llorona brought great chills and suspense from the first scene. I can easily forgive the minor pieces of confusion since the movie had a great layer of darkness covering it. Adding a curandero to the mix pushed my feelings for this film because he reminded me of Taylor from Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986).

It’s probably no surprise that I’m giving The Curse of La Llorona 4 out of 5 Stars.