The ghostly manifestations of La Llorona herself, a woman dressed in what looks like a white wedding dress, are not exactly original. You could substitute the demonic nun from "The Nun" and it would not make much of a difference other than their backgrounds and style of dress. "The Curse of La Llorona" is not anything new, exciting or fresh in the horror movie world presented here, which suspiciously looks like it is drawn from "The Conjuring" universe. The filmmakers say otherwise but when you see an Annabelle cameo, you might think differently.
Linda Cardellini is a single mother, Anna Tate-Garcia, raising two young children, Chris (Roman Christou) and Sam (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) in the early 1970's. She is a family case worker who is concerned about a case involving a distraught, scared mother who keeps the candles burning in her apartment while her two children are padlocked in a closet, all of them frightened beyond belief. La Llorona, the weeping woman, is a demonic force who wants to kidnap her kids and, it seems, drown them. You see the original incarnation of this demon is a Mexican woman (Marisol Ramirez) who, back in the 1670's, had drowned her two children because her husband was cheating on her. When she realized what she had done (while wearing her white dress and veil), she committed suicide. Now she is an angry ghost who preys on Mexican children, in this case, Anna's kids, and well there you have it.
Questions spring to mind quickly. The opening prologue showing these kids and the Mexican woman are too abrupt to make enough of an impression but it begs the question, why drown the children and then kill yourself? Why not just kill yourself or kill the cheating husband? Why is she murderous from the start? And what is her plan with Anna's kids really? If she drowns them, then what? She drowns the other mother's kids but what does that do for La Llorona? Does she become more powerful?
This movie just seems short on inspiration, short on exposition, and short on family dynamics that go beyond Anna and her kids running and hiding from this evil presence. One child, Sam, decides it is a good idea to retrieve her doll outside the door where La Llorona waits. Why other than to draw a child in danger, and to show that they can be as stupid as the adults. Linda Cardellini is a fantastic actress who deserves better material to match her talents (watch her in "Return" for proof). You care about her as a mother protective of her kids and we get the obligatory priests, including one who lost his faith with the church, yada yada yada. "The Curse of La Llorona" has a few shocks but it is too thinly veiled. I weep for Cardellini.
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