The Curse of La Llorona

"A cool set-up, they just didn't do anything with it...this could have been a lot better."

- Chris Stuckmann

The Curse of La Llorona (also known as The Curse of the Weeping Woman in some markets) is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Michael Chaves. It is the sixth installment in The Conjuring Universe and is based on the Mexican folklore of the same name. The film was produced by James Wan through his Atomic Monster Productions banner. The Curse of La Llorona premiered at South by Southwest on March 15, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 19, 2019.

Plot
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 and her own kids are drawn into a frightening supernatural realm. Their only hope of surviving La Llorona's deadly wrath is a disillusioned priest who practices mysticism to keep evil at bay.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The story is heavily derivative of other films from the Conjuring Universe. It's basically a run-of-the-mill and unoriginal horror film, which copied many elements from horror films, outside of the Conjuring Universe.
 * 2) Despite being part of the Conjuring Universe, it has nothing to do with the Warrens at all!
 * 3) * Also, there is no reason for La Llorona to be in the franchise since she's never appeared in any of the previous movies in the franchise as the Warrens have never encountered. Also, what does this mean she have to do with the Conjuring?
 * 4) * Even so, its really pointless when they got Tony Amendola's performance of Father Perez from Annabelle after the first trailer was released.
 * 5) * It was later confirmed that the director, Michael Chaves, says this was not part of the Conjuring Universe, through despite this, it was still part of the Conjuring Universe, according to other social media and reliable sources, such as Rotten Tomatoes.
 * 6) A very flat and formulaic plot that relies on horror clichés.
 * 7) The film is a blatant cheap jump scare-fest, which is the same problem from the previous film in the series, The Nun.
 * 8) Poor acting for most of them at certain times, like child actors.
 * 9) We see La Llorona way too much to the point where she's not scary anymore.
 * 10) If Anna's son didn't try to be nosy and go outside of the car, he wouldn't have encountered La Llorona and none of this would've happened.
 * 11) La Llorona's design is just a derivative of Valak from mh:greatestmovies:The Conjuring 2.
 * 12) * Speaking of La Llorona, much like Freddy in Freddy's Dead, she is given powers that are not present in the original legend.
 * 13) Plot hole: If La Llorona is a Mexican urban legend, what is she doing in 1970s Los Angeles? Just other than the main characters are Mexican in a Spanish name American city?
 * 14) The film tries to build up tension in some scenes but ends up being dull, and it's just ruined with a jump-scare.
 * 15) Patricia Alvarez is a rather highly unlikable character as she blamed Anna for taking her sons and she had tried to stop the malevolent force of "La Llorona." at all, even through it wasn't Anna fault for taking her sons.
 * 16) Lackluster directing of Michael Chaves.
 * 17) It messed up the folktale lore of La Llorona.

Good Qualities

 * 1) It is interesting to see a story about La Llorona, despite not mixing with the franchise very well.
 * 2) Decent visual effects.
 * 3) La Llorona has a creepy character design, despite being derivative of Valak.
 * 4) The film would've worked better if its not been part of the Conjuring Universe.
 * 5) The umbrella scene was pretty scary.
 * 6) Linda Cardellini gives off a good performance of Anna.
 * 7) Great soundtrack by Joseph Bishara.

Reception
The Curse of La Llorona received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and audiences, with criticism aimed at its reliance on jump scares. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 28% based on 186 reviews, with an average rating of 4.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Content to coast on jump scares rather than tap into its story's creepy potential, The Curse of La Llorona arrives in theaters already broken.". At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and a "definite recommend" of 48%.

Chris Stuckmann earned this movie an rating of D+, questioning how it feels like it could have been a lot better.

Videos
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Trivia

 * A movie theater accidentally played this movie instead during a Pokémon Detective Pikachu showing.
 * The reason why The Curse of the Weeping Woman is titled in Australian is because the name "La Llorona" is too hard to pronounced for Australians accents.