Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Linda Cardellini, Roman Christou, Jaynee-Lynne, Kinchen, Raymond Cruz, Marisol Ramirez, Patricia Velasquez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Tony Amendola, Irene Keng, Oliver Alexander, Aiden Lewandowski, Paul Rodriguez, John Marshall Jones, Ricardo Mamood-Vega, Jaydan Valdivia, Andrew Tinpo Lee.
The curse is such a staple of horror that, unless used wisely, loses its charm with little fanfare and only the slight chill of what might have been attached to the work in question.
The curse, the spell weaved by the bitter, the oppressed, and the damaged, has its own special relationship with the viewer, hopefully installing a sense of fear not to cross people, but ultimately one that, especially to the fan of the horror genre, always falls into a specific set of rules and observances, and whilst The Curse Of La Llorona plays with the tropes in a more candid way, there is still the underlying procedural effect, that c is an effect of b and a working together to display a rigid, but often predictable, storyline.
That is not to say that the film does not have its charm, Linda Cardellini offers a more mature insight into the world of the so called scream queen trope so beloved by other horror writers and studios and whilst her character is a victim of the curse, Ms. Cardellini’s own acting prowess ensures that she is more believable in her fear than many who have gone before her.
The premise of the curse, the scorned wronged woman, is not new in film or in art, but it is to how it is presented on screen which defines how the film is actually received, and as the nightmare finds its way into Anna’s and her children’s home, so the viewer is given the once glance of redemption, the moment in the cursed woman’s life in which give the family hope. It is this inclusion, the moment of sanity in which the aged cliche of the mad woman in the attic is given a different perspective and one that is gratifying to the watcher.
The Curse Of La Llorona has its issues, the use of the curse and the reliance once again on the maverick former man of God who is persuaded to join in the fight against the evil attached to the family but it is also stylish in its bleakness, a sense of film noir seeping through underneath the narrative, and with Linda Cardellini driving the film’s pacing and Marisol Ramirez as the woman wreaking havoc on the family, The Curse Of La Llorona is by far one of the better attempts on film to discuss the depths in which a curse has its moments in horror.
Ian D. Hall