The Curse of La Llorona takes cherished Mexican folklore and disappointingly centers it around a distressed white woman. This is an atmospheric, often creepy, and well-produced film, but its lethargic pace, awful script, and aimless direction often leaves both the audience and even the characters saying, “Now what?” It builds a good amount suspense but then delivers only jump scares and cracked mirrors. For such a frightening figure, this movie is lacking some serious cohones.
The script only passingly mentions the back story of La Llorona and never really attempts any meaningful connection to the culture or the time period. Why exactly is La Llorona in Los Angeles? Seems a wee bit off from Mexico, so I'm guessing she's vacationing? One wonders why this movie could not be set in Mexico, and maybe left as a period piece. The answer is simple: this movie is made for mainstream American audiences who will not tolerate subtitles, full Mexican casts, and intended to capitalize on the figure of La Llorona. If there were respects made to the culture, I failed to see any of them. Worse yet, it shows mostly eccentric Latino supporting characters that run eggs around door frames or clean bad juju with smudge sticks, are crazed mothers inexplicably locking children in weirdly illustrated closets, or are radical priests with weird ghostbusting agendas. No all Mexicans are not like this. If my mamá had a smudge stick she’d use it to make enchilada sauce, she would never waste an egg, and God forbid I so much as put a faint pencil line on her immaculate white doors. This lack of balance showing human, fully-dimensional characters is really disheartening.
I really admire Linda Cardellini as an actress and she does a superb job with what she's given. Her guttural scream is chilling and she can emote the fear and protective yelps of a mother trying to protect her children. Unfortunately, the children at the center of this have wooden line delivery, and the script makes them speak and act in ways a child would never do. Upon seeing my nephew last week, he immediately launched into every horrid detail of caterpillar that fell on his face. Yet the children in this film encounter a spectral figure, are chased repeatedly, and have not one word to say on the matter. They also run towards danger and into dark places. I get that this is horror film and one must suspend their disbelief, but at one point, the young girl makes such an egregious error that I begged for La Llorona to take her, no questions asked. Finally, the movie commits a horror movie cardinal sin. Rules are never really established for how La Llorona can haunt, and then contradicts itself at every point. She can appear anywhere, sometimes, but can only lunge at you for about 4 feet and never reach you. She must first mark you, just because she can, but will also attack you if you are not marked. It appears she only haunts Mexican children, but has made an exception for half-Mexican children. She is a spectral figure, but you can grab loose accessories from outfit. And her cries, result in tears we never see fall, that if treated could be used against her. None of this makes any pinche sense. I've been waiting for a good film about La Llorona. One day it will be made and not concocted in the experimental churnhouse of The Conjuring producers. It makes me so sad that this film didn't live up to half the promise of the trailer, and while I appreciated seeing Mexican actors on screen, I did not like the unbalanced portrayal of the culture. At the very least, we got some stunning artwork for the posters which is about the best thing to come from this terribly misguided, hugely disappointing, and sadly mediocre film.