Nothing is better than a new movie in “The Conjuring” series, this time, showcasing an old ghost
folklore coming true.

“The Curse of La Llorona” is set in Los Angeles, 1973. It is directed by Michael Chaves who wanted to created a similar effect that JA Bayona produced with his The Orphanage. Handpicked by the famous horror film director James Wan, Chaves is currently working on “The Conjuring 3,” after just releasing “The Curse of La Llorona.”

To begin, “The Curse of La Llorona” is about Anna Garcia (Actress Linda Cardellini) and her two kids who are haunted by La Llorona, the weeping woman. The curse originated from a Mexican folklore, where a mother drowns her two children out of jealousy, and later kills herself the same way out of guilt.

Now, children who hear her weep are haunted by her, and, if she’s successful, drowned, including Anna’s children Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) and Chris (Roman Christou).

Chaves did extraordinarily with the filming, especially with scenes like Samantha spotting the monster through the shield of her umbrella. Additionally, the actors of Anna, her children, and La Llorona acted on point. The only questionable decisions I can think of is how surprisingly quiet the children were about the strange encounters rather than informing their mother about it.

Unlike other movies, the ghost in “The Curse of La Llorona” has a known origin even before the movie while most others are created as the movie develops, and Chaves just simply incorporated this folklore into a horror movie.

The jumpscares were easily predictable but nonetheless scary with the amount of detail put on La Llorona. The ghost itself appeared realistic, giving the movie more suspense and fright. There wasn’t too much or too little detail to where it looked obviously fake.

Although the plot was interesting and the acting was flawless, this movie could have still improved a lot. As the main antagonist of the movie, La Llonora, although scary as it seems, only haunted two families. She certainly needs more emphasis for “La Llorona” to seem as threatening as it is rather than killing only two families and the curse being resolved at the end. Also, there was a decent amount of Spanish dialogue that was untranslated, which was disappointing no matter if it was relevant or not.

Overall, the movie is good. I’m not an experienced horror movie viewer, but The Curse of La Llonora is one of many that spooks me. I would recommend this to my friends, and any mediocre horror movie watchers out there. For braver audiences, I would say this may be a waste of time since the jumpscares are too obvious and the dialogue explains too much.