The Curse of La Llorona

"She wants your children."

2019 1h 33m EN

😐

5.6

MID

🥫

26%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.3

IMDB

★5.6TMDB · 2,747🥫26%Rotten Tomatoes●41Metacritic★5.3IMDB · 64,858

Horror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In 1970s Los Angeles, the legendary ghost La Llorona is stalking the night -- and the children. Ignoring the eerie warning of a troubled mother, a social worker and her own kids are drawn into a frightening supernatural realm. Their only hope of surviving La Llorona's deadly wrath is a disillusioned priest who practices mysticism to keep evil at bay.

“She wants your children.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Linda Cardellini
Anna Tate-Garcia
Raymond Cruz
Rafael Olvera
Patricia Velásquez
Patricia Alvarez
Roman Christou
Chris Garcia
Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen
Samantha Garcia
Marisol Ramirez
La Llorona
Sean Patrick Thomas
Detective Cooper
Tony Amendola
Father Perez

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Michael Chaves
Writers: Mikki Daughtry, Tobias Iaconis
Languages: English, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $123M — a 13.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 7 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "La Llorona Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Michael Chaves, shot by Michael Burgess. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Joseph Bishara. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Peter Gvozdas shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Linda Cardellini and Raymond Cruz and Patricia Velásquez carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Michael Chaves directs. Michael Burgess behind the camera. Joseph Bishara scores. Peter Gvozdas cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $123M — a 13.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released 7 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.
4Part of the "La Llorona Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Michael Chaves, shot by Michael Burgess. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Joseph Bishara. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Peter Gvozdas shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Linda Cardellini and Raymond Cruz and Patricia Velásquez carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "She wants your children.".
10IMDB entry: tt4913966 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 18 themes, including "mexico", "sibling relationship", "1970s", "religion and supernatural".
12Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Michael Burgess
Original score: Joseph Bishara
Editing: Peter Gvozdas
Production design: Melanie Jones
Costume design: Megan Spatz
Makeup / hair: Traci E. Smithe
Sound: Joe Barnett
Stunt coordinator: Kurt Bryant
Runtime: 93 min · 1h 33m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $9,000,000
Box office: $123,233,739
Return: 1369% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes: 26% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 41/100
IMDB rating: 5.3/10 · 64,858 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win & 7 nominations total

Part of

La Llorona Collection

A series of American horror films. The plot revolves around a family getting haunted by the Mexican folklore spirit La Llorona.

Also by

Michael Chaves

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Manuel São Bento2019-04-18
★ 5/10
If you enjoy reading my Spoiler-Free reviews, please follow my blog :) It’s not as bad as The Nun, let me write this straight away. If there’s one thing that this movie proves is Michael Chavestalented filmmaking skills, which offers hope for The Conjuring 3. Contrary to the other spin-off of the universe, The Curse of La Llorona toned down on the lazy exposition and elevated its scary sequences, simply by having a more capable director. Beautiful one-take scenes are spread throughout the runtime, which not only increase the suspense but prove that Chaves actually works hard to provide a terrifying environment. He also delivers some effective and innovative jump scares, even though most of them still follow an annoyingly predictable timing. These are still heavy on the cliche of “character turning her head, big ugly monster face screams and the score goes from silence to screeching volume.” Scenes like these aren’t scary anymore and they feel dated, as well as the typical origin story. There’s nothing new or exciting in an “urban legend turned true.” Fortunately, the backstory is simple, it isn’t filled with explicit exposition every two minutes, and the short runtime helps the film to develop through a fast pacing. Sadly, it’s just another common horror screenplay that the writers took from the scripts cabinet. Linda Cardellini gives a strong performance as the protagonist. Even though every character in this movie makes questionable decisions that lead to avoidable events (something inevitable in horror films), Anna is a compelling and courageous woman, who only wants to do what’s best for any children, not only their own. Raymond Cruz portrays Rafael, a priest who sort of almost is a deus ex machina. He barely has any kind of decent character development, but he works well enough as comic relief to lighten up an otherwise too dark tone. The kids are good, but Patricia Velasquez (Patricia Alvarez) is way over-the-top, which doesn’t help her already not-so-good script. All in all, The Curse of La Llorona is … okay. It’s not near as horrible as The Nun, and honestly, that’s a good compliment for such a typical and cliche horror flick. Michael Chaves truly saves what could have been a disaster with another director. Wonderfully handled one-take sequences, which elevate the suspense levels, and he also produced some imaginative jump scares, even if most of them still lack actual scariness. Linda Cardellini is great as the lead, but every character is compelled to make dumb decisions to move the plot forward. Some characters needed more care in their scripts, and more focus on the story to tell instead of just creating scares after scares. Close, but not close enough … Rating: C+
Gimly2019-06-10
★ 4/10
Where I'm from, this was marketed as The Curse of the Weeping Woman 'cause I guess Australia can't be trusted with to pronounce a Spanish word. Similarly, I guess Warner Bros. can't be trusted to make a horror movie without cramming it into the bloated Conjuring franchise. I love seeing Linda Cardellini get work, but I don't know that a La Llorona movie was the best choice to put her in lead of, and I do know that this La Llorona movie was a bad choice, just like... Generally speaking. "Bad" might be too far. Bland? Old hat? Something along those lines might be a label that fits a little better. Definitely not the label "good" though. Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.
JPV8522019-08-28
★ 3/10
Acting was fine but the rest was one big cliche of the supernatural-horror genre with too many jump scares and the evil entity pretty much reminded me of the Nun, which makes sense since this is set in the Conjuring Universe.