The movie “The Curse of La Llorona” came out in theatres on Friday, April 19th. The movie takes place in the 1970s in Los Angeles and is based around the events that led to the Garcia family obtaining the curse of La Llorona and how they got rid of it. It should be noted that this movie is a part of the Anabelle/Conjuring universe. It is also worth mentioning that the movie has a predominantly Hispanic cast which is amazing seeing as most Supernatural/Scary movies’ have many Caucasian actors. The movie starts off normally, with Anna Garcia trying to rally up her son Chris and daughter Sam to go to school but takes a creepy twist quickly when Anna heads off to her job as a social worker. When Anna gets to work she’s immediately sent to one of her cases because the troubled mother’s children hadn’t gone to school for a couple days. When Anna reaches the woman’s apartment there is a noticeable creepy vibe coming from both the mother and the apartment. Despite the troubled mother’s pleas, Anna went into the apartment looking for the children. As this is happening in the movie, it was noticeable that the audience was already creeped out and we were only about five minutes into the movie. In the few minutes that Anna was in the apartment searching for the children, the director, Michael Chaves, could evoke an unsettling feeling that made the audience felt like they were inside the movie. When Anna finally found a locked door full of eyes drawn on it you could hear the shouts from the audience “Don’t open it!” or “Are you stupid?” as Anna started to break down the lock. Of course, as in many scary movies, this seemingly small act led to a series of other events which eventually led to the Garcia family obtaining the curse. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the legend of La Llorona, she is also known as the “Weeping Woman”. She was a beautiful woman who was cheated on by her beloved husband, and because of this rage and jealousy she drowned and murdered both of her sons before committing suicide. Her tale is told in various Hispanic homes to scare children into behaving because if not, “La Llorona will take you away”. La Llorona’s main goal is to search for children to replace her two sons that she murdered, she does this by murdering the children of other mothers and taking them with her for eternity.
The movie overall was amazing, it sparked an interactive feel in the audience and when it was done all you could see was popcorn on the floor from people jumping. The makeup done on the actress playing La Llorona was done in the perfect “you’re going to have so many nightmares after this” fashion. The music was used in the most efficient way, it told you exactly when you need to start covering your eyes because something scary was going on. The movie also had some laughable moments to help alleviate the stress the audience was going through, this is not counting the hilarious outbursts from the audience. Although critics did not like this movie very much, it is a must see for those who grew up hearing about La Llorona. However, it is recommended that if you’re not a Spanish speaker, watch it with closed captions so you can understand in the parts where they speak Spanish.