Heavily marketed as a film produced by James Wan, The Curse of the Weeping Woman (a.k.a. The Curse of La Llorona in other regions) pleasantly turns out to be a subtle part of the Conjuring Universe despite intended as a standalone film.
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Heavily marketed as a film produced by James Wan, The Curse of the Weeping Woman (a.k.a. The Curse of La Llorona in other regions) pleasantly turns out to be a subtle part of the Conjuring Universe despite intended as a standalone film.
Directed by Michael Chaves, the film explores terror inspired by a Latin American folklore character La Llorona whose origin began all the way back in 1673 where a mother foolishly drowned her two children out of jealousy provoked by her husband’s affair with another woman.
The main story took place some 300 years later in 1973 where the supernatural protagonist was haunting families in seek of their children’s souls. Chaves decided to focus on his genre techniques for his first feature and established several scare scenes that would be greatly appreciated by fans.
While this approach would satisfy many, it, unfortunately, led to a story and screenplay by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis that felt too linear to impress. This was especially so considering how The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 had plot twists awaiting the audience right at the end of the fright fest.
Chaves’ treatment of his scare scenes felt familiar. From the lighting, colour and the shot composition, it highly references Wan’s signature that might not be a bad thing especially for those who are attracted to Wan’s credentials. Horror effects were in the form of orchestrated strong gusts of wind, loud floorboard creaks and door slams. Joseph Bishara also scored the soundtrack of this film, along with several of Wan’s other productions.
The central character played by Linda Cardellini had a firm footing in the film to command good screen presence with her relatively strong personality as a social worker who eventually found herself in a similar predicament as that of the families that she counselled. If there ever was a sequel, it would be a delight to see Cardellini reprise her role.
A faith healer who was once a priest, Raymond Cruz is impressionable as Rafael Olvera with his unorthodox methods portrayed in his battle scene with La Llorona extensively. It would likewise be interesting if the Conjuring Universe ever unite all their heroes (i.e. Rafael Olvera, Ed and Lorraine Warren) together (and perhaps even collaborating with their counterparts in the Insidious franchise like Specs and Tucker, and Elise Rainier) to combat an extremely vicious monster.
If one can accept an average story and screenplay (which is still serviceable), The Curse of the Weeping Woman should scare the weekends out of the audience with induced sleeping disorders. This would be further amplified in the IMAX format that is screening for a limited time before the blockbuster season kicks in.
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