Rated: M
Directed by: Michael Chaves
Written by: Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis
Produced by: James Wan, Gary Dauberman and Emile Gladstone
Starring: Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez, Marisol Ramirez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Roman Christou.
Based on the Hispanic folk tale of La Llorona, The Weeping Woman, the film begins where the curse began – the 1600s, Mexico.
Llorona, famed for her beauty, catches the eye of a rich man who rides into her small village. Marrying the man of her dreams, she bares two children. The folk tale describes Llorona flying into a jealous rage when she finds her husband in the arms of a younger woman; her revenge, to kill those he prizes the most. His children.
She drowns his children. But when she realises what she’s done, guilt consumes her so she throws herself in the same waters, to drown. But her spirit remains to haunt, looking for children to replace the ones she has lost.
The film starts scary, with some surprising, brutal moments and angled camera shots that tilt the view through the eyes of the spirit, Llorona (Marisol Ramirez).
Yet as the film progresses, those creaking doors start to lose effect.
In present day Los Angeles, 1973, Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini) lives as a single mum with two kids, Chris (Roman Christou) and Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen).
Working as a social worker, she struggles to balance life, to spend enough time with her kids and to take care of everything on her own.
But it’s a happy family.
Until, visiting Patricia (Patricia Valásquez), a client she knows through work, where she finds children locked behind a closet door covered in drawn eyes.
Thinking she’s saving the children, Anna unwittingly catches the attention of the Weeping Woman. A spirit determined to drown her children.
It all sounds like a good scary story. But l lost focus along the way with moments that left me wondering, how does a baseball bat scare off a spirit?
And social workers don’t investigate other colleagues when it comes their children’s welfare. Well, not officially.
Then along comes the ex-priest – not the one still with the church who loses all credibility when mentioning his dealings with the evil possessed doll, Annabelle. But the faith healer, Rafael Olvera (Raymond Cruz).
I just could not take him seriously. And neither could the Garcia family he’s trying to save when he gets them to rub intact eggs along the frames of doorways.
It was like the director realised the film was turning from horror to ridiculous and then used an incredibly dry humour to lift the film from drowning in a wash of boredom.
The film becomes borderline silly with lace and doe-eyed moments stated in dialogue like, ‘She’s come to drown us.’
I felt pretty water-logged.
But then I realised the irony of the faith healer’s humour against the murderous crazy spirit who drowns kids.
Overall, a lost opportunity that turned a horror movie into, something else.