Review: The Curse of the Weeping Woman/La Llorona (2019)

The Curse of the Weeping Woman (2019)

aka The Curse of La Llorona

Directed by Michael Chaves

Starring Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, and Patricia Velasquez

This movie is bad, guys. Damn. But, all right, as usual, let me give you a little bit of info first. This is the newest installment in the Conjuring franchise. It tells the folk story of La Llorona, a woman who drowned her kids after finding out that her lover had an affair with another woman and killed herself upon realizing what she had done. La Llarona itself means "the weeping woman" as she's usually found crying near the river and will supposedly take your children to replace her dead ones. In this story, Linda Cardellini is a single mother named Anna Garcia who recently lost her husband and has to take care of her own two children whilst also managing her work as a social worker. She's assigned to deal with Patricia Alvarez, a mother believed to have committed child endangerment, and upon her visit to her home, she learns that Patricia has locked her children in the closet, so she has them released into foster care. Turns out, it is a mistake as *SPOILER ALERT* the children are drowned the first night they're there, and the supernatural entity who did it now latches on to Anna's children because Patricia wants them to take her children's place (so, apparently, you can do that?).

The Weeping Woman has quite a few good things going for it. One is Linda Cardellini, whose acting chops were put to great use as the main character who is pretty rational and just wants what's best for her children. She is basically the perfect actress for this type of role--the concerned mother role (ala Rose Byrne and Lili Taylor)--that it's almost a shame that her entry in the Conjuring universe has to be this movie. Two, it's the well-crafted scares. There were several moments that were actually quite classically scary due the innovative ideas behind them that were also realized by the good setting, the effective cinematography, and the tight editing (e.g. the hallway scene with the Alvarez boys and the umbrella scene with Anna's daughter), but unfortunately, those moments are rare, and the director Chaves relied too much on cheap jump scares and old tricks to fill its running time. It's almost too much. I'd rather have a moment of 'normalcy' that could build-up the characters and dramatic stakes in between those well-crafted scares than those stale by-the-numbers scares. By the time they're baiting La Llorona to come downstairs, I was like, Oh my God, get down there already, I'm so fucking bored! And that's supposed to be the big climax of the movie.

Furthermore, Chaves didn't have a good grasp of the tone, too. The first half is pretty serious as it deals with dead children and builds the dramatic foundation for the Garcias who recently lost their patriarch figure, but as soon as Rafael (Cruz) shows up to help them, the movie tries to slip in these humorous moments that didn't work at all for me. Aside from its general unfunniness, it just feels out of place following the very serious first half. The paranormal investigators in Insidious could fall into this territory as well, but there, the jokes work within the context of the characters and their dynamic, and they are actually, yes, funny. Another flaw would be how stupid these characters are acting. I kept feeling like yelling to the screen, don't follow your brother into that creepy hallway! Don't go out of the car as your mom tells you not to! And the most frustrating of all, it's when the Garcia daughter tries to retrieve her doll on the outside porch from inside the house even though she's been warned that if the barrier Rafael had made in the door were broken, La Llorona could come in. These dumb character moments were really annoying, and they were such a cheap way to get the story going.

Final verdict: a big miss. Skip it. 4.5/10.