Director
Michael Chaves
(Feature film debut)

Stars
Linda Cardellini, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, Roman Christou, Patricia Velasquez and Marisol Ramirez

THE CURSE OF THE WEEPING WOMAN (or THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA as it’s also known) will no doubt seek to benefit from being classified as the sixth entry in The Conjuring film universe. Should that enticement be enough to persuade, you’ll more than likely end up cursing yourself!

In 1970s Los Angeles, single mother and social worker Anna (Linda Cardellini) visits the home of a troubled woman (played by Patricia Velasquez) who appears to be endangering the safety of her two young sons. Soon after, Anna’s own son, Chris (Roman Christou) and daughter, Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) begin to experience eerie supernatural phenomena that bear some striking similarities to Anna’s case. As these occurrences become more frequent and frightening, Anna’s endeavours to understand what’s terrorising her family leads her to the discovery of a centuries-old curse known as the curse of La Llorona, who is a female ghost in Latin American folklore.

While laying the foundations by developing the background for the horror to play out, THE CURSE OF THE WEEPING WOMAN starts off quite reasonably. The plot and storytelling during its first act has a little more emphasis on its dramatic angles and draws better interest by doing so. But whenever that weeping woman magically emerges from the dark and the film attempts to get its scare on, THE CURSE OF THE WEEPING WOMAN cheaply recycles familiar tactics used to make audiences jump that are as archaic as the curse itself. This trait only increases and worsens as the film wears on, which it also shares in common with The Conjuring universe’s previous underwhelming addition, THE NUN. Furthermore, the production takes little advantage of being set in the 1970s and there is absolutely nothing fresh brought to the genre either. An all-too-briefly investigated subject matter had the potential to do the latter and take this film to darker and/or psychological territory, but it continually opts for the unimaginative. Maybe some viewers will take more kindly to the tongue-in-cheek humour that surfaces in the final act of the film. But while this may offset some of the solemn tone implemented throughout, THE CURSE OF THE WEEPING WOMAN remains a stale and very mediocre supernatural horror movie.

2 stars

Viewer Discretion
M (Supernatural themes and violence)

Trailer
THE CURSE OF THE WEEPING WOMAN

Moviedoc thanks Roadshow Films for the invite to the screening of this film.

Opens nationally on April 18

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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