This movie came up with two titles, The Curse of La Llorona and The Curse of the Weeping Woman at some market, including at cinemas in Indonesia. Between these two titles, I prefer the first one because the La Llorona name on the title make the movie more recognisable. For instance, I could ask my friends “Have you watched La Llorona?” while referring to this movie.
La Llorona is told to be a beautiful woman who killed both of her sons in revenge to her cheating husband. After she drowned her sons on a river, she cried regretfully and wished that the sons could be replaceable. After her death, her cursed soul aims to snatch another child to be the replacement of her deceased sons. Local rumour says that her appearance is started by her crying. That’s why her spirit also called as the weeping woman due to her signature. That’s the origin story of La Llorona, the newest devil which got herself movie in The Conjuring universe. In this movie, the haunted family consists of Anna and her two children, Chris and Sam. Anna is a wife of a police and took part in investigating the disappearance of Patricia‘s two sons. She then found out that Patricia locked up the sons to hide them from La Llorona. Anna then brought the children to the police station but then they still found drowned at the following night. Their fate is the premise to what will happened to Anna’s children next.
As a horror movie, the movie is said to have a save and common plot. It connects cleverly with the whole The Conjuring universe and its connection contributed in shifting Anna’s point of view to mystical things that her family experienced. Since the movie is a common horror movie compared to the other movies at the same universe, the delivered jump scares and story resolution are not something new. In short, La Llorona scared the family with coming from trivial spots. The way to stop La Llorona’s terror itself is simple, by an orthodox ritual, but still matched with the cultural background from the movie.
The story put on the movie itself seemed incomplete. The movie didn’t tell how Patricia’s sons encountered La Llorona. Until the end, the movie also didn’t tell her motive of her decision at the end of the movie. Moreover, it’s still unclear why Anna’s husband left the family? Because he already died? Still uncertain. In short, the movie still has little plot holes and ran as a simple horror movie. Hence my final rating for this movie is 6 of 10.
Notes of Hobbies 