Shoehorning A Legend Into The Conjuring Universe with ‘The Curse of La Llorona’ [Murder Made Fiction Podcast]

Throughout September, Murder Made Fiction podcast has been discussing  La Llorona – first with a primer (listen here), then 1933 Mexican film The Crying Woman (listen here), as well as 1963 film ⁠The Curse of the Crying Woman⁠ (listen here).

Now we’re into contemporary times with director Michael Chaves‘ Hollywood production, The Curse of La Llorona (2019). Starring Linda Cardellini as social worker Anna, the film awkwardly tries to balance a white savior narrative into the traditional legend, while also plugging this standalone film into the larger Conjuring universe via ties to the first Annabelle film.

In the film, Anna takes away Patricia Alvarez (Patricia Velásquez)’s two sons after (mistakenly) believing that they are being harmed by their mother. After the boys are both drowned, Anna’s own children – Chris (Roman Christou) and Sam (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) are stalked by the malevolent spirit of La Llorona. In a bid to break the spell and protect her family, Anna recruits disgraced priest Rafael (Raymond Cruz) leading to several water-based set pieces and an underwhelming climax involving a mirror and an attic.

Alas the film never manages to strike a balance between the La Llorona myth and the larger franchise goals of The Conjuring and its spin-offs. A scene involving Father Perez (Tony Amendola) feels contractual and superfluous and the further the movie progresses, the clearer it becomes that The Curse of La Llorona has very little interest in exploring the history or the legacy of its titular character (played by Marisol Ramirez). She’s basically just a generic haunting spirit.

Even worse, the film seemingly pits “good mother” Anna against Patricia’s “bad mother” without unpacking the uncomfortable racial politics of the situation, or even helping the audience to understand who Patricia is as a character. She’s basically just a secondary antagonist in Anna’s story.

This might be more forgivable if the film were more than a collection of bland jump scares. Call it gateway horror, but everything about the film is so ho-hum; it’s essentially a series of too familiar Conjuring sequences strung together.

The end result is pretty boring. Plus: casting talented actors like Cardellini and Velásquez and giving them virtually nothing to do? Someone ought to be cursed for that.

If you want even more Murder Made Fiction, be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 90+ hours of bonus content including episodes dedicated to documentary The Devil on Trial, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, 1991 made-for-TV movie The Haunted and The Conjuring: Last Rites, along with episode by episode coverage of Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.