The Curse of La Llorona is a horror film released in 2019, directed by Michael Chaves. The film is set in Los Angeles in 1973 and revolves around the folklore of La Llorona, a weeping woman who drowned her own children and now haunts the living. The story follows a social worker named Anna who is called to investigate a case of child endangerment. After she intervenes, the children are found drowned, and Anna becomes the target of La Llorona's curse. As the curse torments Anna and her own children, she seeks the help of a former priest who specializes in supernatural phenomena. The film takes inspiration from Latin American folklore, specifically the legend of La Llorona, which translates to "The Weeping Woman" in English.
"Once you see it, it’s too late."
La Llorona and The Curse of La Llorona are two films ostensibly about the same figure in Latin American folklore but each film plays to an entirely different audience. La Llorona and The Curse of La Llorona are two films ostensibly about the same figure in Latin American folklore but each film plays to an entirely different audience.
The film takes inspiration from Latin American folklore, specifically the legend of La Llorona, which translates to "The Weeping Woman" in English. This popular folk tale tells the story of a woman who, after a fit of jealousy, drowns her own children in a river and is condemned to roam the earth eternally, weeping and searching for her lost children. The Curse of La Llorona blends elements of horror and supernatural suspense to create a chilling atmosphere.
The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
In 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona, recently widowed caseworker Anna Tate-Garcia (Linda Cardellini) is struggling to balance her grief against the caregiving needs of her children. When she is assigned the case of a mother who has locked her children in a closet in a bid to save them from the murderous spirit, La Llorona (Marisol Ramirez), events are set in motion that ultimately culminate in a showdown between mothers.
In our first scream, La Llorona has managed to breach the entry of the Tate-Garcia household where she has absconded with Anna’s daughter, Sam (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen). Knowing that La Llorona intends to kill her child, a frantic Anna follows the two into the water where a battle ensues.
On the surface, the screams informing this scene register as a guttural reaction of a mother attempting to save her child from a dangerous situation. But they also stem from an intersection of anger and grief. As the audience, we know that Anna is struggling in her role as a single parent, and part of the emotion fueling this scream is a hybrid of sadness and anger that she alone is responsible for protecting her family. It is an obligation that weighs heavily on her and that prompts frequent doubts as to whether she alone is enough for her children. Interestingly, the complexity of the scene suggests that perhaps she is correct to be worried.
Although Anna and La Llorona have encountered one another previously, this moment marks their first physical interaction. This should be a moment that assuages Anna’s concern over whether her abilities alone as a mother are enough to protect her children. After all, her instinct to race into the water to save her daughter ties into our cultural expectation that good mothers are self-sacrificing. But complicating this scene is the arrival of Olvera (Raymond Cruz), a former priest Anna has enlisted to help her protect her family against La Llorona. As Anna battles underwater to free Sam, Olvera engages in a hybrid of ritual and prayer above the water that culminates in his placing his hand in the water and breaking La Llorona’s control of the situation. In this moment, Olvera reads as the paternal presence to Anna’s maternal one. Previously, Anna noted that her husband was the religious one and Olvera’s status as a former priest makes him the ideal husband surrogate. Anna is only able to save Sam with Olvera’s help and that reality suggests Anna’s worries that she alone is not enough is based on some truth. Her screams are an awareness that she was right all along; she really can’t protect her children alone.
The idea that children fare better in two-parent households is an inherently patriarchal one. But is it an idea that might resonate with horror film fans? Research indicates that in 2014, among young adults ages 18-25, 55% of young men disagreed with traditional gender roles that cast fathers as the breadwinners and mothers as the homemakers, a substantial difference from the 83% of young men who disagreed in 1994. If we consider that this demographic is also the core demographic to which horror films are traditionally marketed, Anna’s enlistment of a husband surrogate potentially reads as approval of traditional gender role norms. It is a curious position for a genre build upon norm violation.
This quasi-nuclear family dynamic also comes into play in our next scream. Alone in the attic, Anna’s two children are stunned when La Llorona appears to them in her human form. Thinking she has finally found one of her lost children, La Llorona quickly resumes her spirit form when Anna and Olvera appear.
What is especially interesting about the female screams heard here is how they frame two entirely different experiences of maternal grief. The initial scream comes from La Llorona as she charges toward Anna. Having just mistakenly believed reunification with her deceased children was imminent, La Llorona’s scream is a powerful intersection of grief and anger-fueled in no small part by a desire to lash out at mothers who still have their children. La Llorona’s grief is complicated for the audience because while we see her sadness and yearning as she caresses the face of Anna’s son, we also know that her children died as a result of matricide. There is an implication that she deserves her grief in a way that Anna simply does not. For her part, Anna’s scream is a renunciation of La Llorona’s pain. As the mother for whom the audience is positioned to align, Anna’s grief is acceptable because she did nothing to deserve it, unlike La Llorona.
This issue of which mother deserves our sympathy is then complicated by the film’s explicit privileging of white motherhood. We know that in her human form, La Llorona is a Mexican woman. And we know that the only other mother the film introduces us to is Patricia Alvarez (Patricia Velásquez) who is also a Latina. Like La Llorona, Patricia’s arc is one of a mother who seeks to be reunited with her deceased sons. But unlike La Llorona, responsibility for their deaths, which occur after Anna dismisses Patricia’s fears of La Llorona as a silly folktale and removes the children from her home, does not reside with Patricia. Rather, her monstrosity is connected to her willingness to sacrifice Anna’s children to La Llorona in return for her children. No space of empathy is granted to the character until she reverses her decision and allows Anna the opportunity to save her children, an opportunity previously denied to Patricia by Anna. That the film depicts its two Latina mothers as menacing while casting its white mother as an innocent reflects a significant and deep bias in how North American motherhood is framed in popular culture largely by whiteness.
Coontz, Stephanie, and Virgina Rutter. Council on Contemporary Gender and Millennials Symposium, 31 Mar. 2017, contemporaryfamilies.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FINAL-CCF-Gender-Millennial.pdf.
Doyle, Nora. Maternal Bodies: Redefining Motherhood in Early America. University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
The Curse of La Llorona. Directed by Michael Chaves, performances by Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, and Patricia Velásquez, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2019.
The film employs jump scares, eerie sound design, and dark cinematography to heighten the tension and create a sense of dread. The presence of La Llorona is often signaled by her distinctive weeping, which adds an unsettling and haunting element to the film. Overall, The Curse of La Llorona is a suspenseful and atmospheric horror film that effectively utilizes the folklore of La Llorona to create scares. The film appeals to fans of supernatural horror, as well as those with an interest in Latin American folklore and legends..
Reviews for "Is "The Curse of La Llorona" (2007) a Modern Retelling of an Old Legend?"
1. John - 1 star
The Curse of La Llorona was a complete waste of time. The plot was predictable and unoriginal, offering no surprises or suspense. The acting was subpar, with wooden performances from the entire cast. The scares were cheap jump scares that were more frustrating than frightening. Overall, this movie lacked creativity and failed to deliver any real scares or entertainment value.
2. Sarah - 2 stars
I was really disappointed with The Curse of La Llorona. The storyline had potential but the execution fell flat. The movie relied too heavily on jump scares and lacked any real depth or character development. The scares were repetitive and became monotonous after a while. The performances were mediocre at best, with unconvincing reactions and lackluster expressions. I would not recommend this film to anyone looking for a good horror movie experience.
3. Tom - 1 star
I found The Curse of La Llorona to be a boring and unoriginal horror film. The plot was predictable and lacked any real substance. The acting was forgettable, and the characters were poorly developed. The scares were cheap and relied on loud noises and sudden appearances, rather than building true suspense. Overall, this movie felt like a waste of time and lacked the creativity to stand out among other horror films.
4. Emily - 2 stars
The Curse of La Llorona fell short of my expectations. The story was intriguing, but it lacked proper execution. The scares were lacking and felt repetitive throughout the film. The acting was decent, but the characters were underdeveloped and lacked depth. The overall pacing of the movie was off, with slow build-up and rushed conclusions. While it had potential, this film failed to deliver a truly engaging and terrifying experience.