Arunkumar Sekhar By Express News Service With films like A Quiet Place, Hereditary, Get Out and Us, horror as a genre is undergoing quite the renaissance, as directors are trying to stretch the limits of the genre. But the success — or should I say rebirth of horror itself -- owes itself to the success of The Conjuring. A lot of films have since tried to replicate that success with largely disappointing results, with many trying to leech off of the name gained by the original. The latest to join that list is The Curse of the Weeping Woman. James Wan wants to do to horror what Kevin Feige did to comics-based films -- which is create a universe in which ghosts from one film can flit into the other, and in the process, maybe create a ghost edition of the Avengers. How else can you explain the appearance of Annabelle or Father Perez in this film? If he is indeed trying to assemble a ghostly team, I guess he is on point. The Weeping Woman aka La Llorana is a Mexican urban legend. The most beautiful woman in all of Mexico in the 17th century, she married a guy and bore him two children. One day, she found him in the arms of a younger woman and to spite him, killed her two young boys by drowning them in the river in a fit of jealous rage. Realising her folly soon after, she wept on the banks of a river before killing herself. Since then, she has been roaming the banks of river banks to kill more such siblings, supposedly. The protagonist of the story, Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini), is a social worker who works with child services and repatriation. A widow, she has two children, Sam (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) and Chris (Roman Christou), whom she raises all alone in 1973 Los Angeles. During one of her regular visits, she finds that one of her clients, Patricia (Patricia Velasquez), is hiding her sons in a closet marked with mysterious drawings. An atheist, she doesn’t believe in the drawings, and inspite of a protesting Patricia, opens the door and becomes responsible for all the hell that follows the families of Patricia and hers. It is an intriguing story, and could be said to be the darkest of the series after Annabelle. Here is a single mother who sacrifices a lot for her children, gets chided for coming late to work, and even brings home her work. You contrast that to the murderous mother that is the ghost, La Llorona whose work-life balance is, truth be told, not all that hard to maintain. What could have been fantastic drama in storytelling instead becomes a regular scarefest, only without the scares. At one point, I was just mentally checking the cliches: Cracked mirrors, self-managed doors, crosses. You get it. The best scenes of this film are those that are devoid of these cliches. The opening shot that captures all the madness that is getting ready for school, is long and dynamic, and makes for one of the sunniest openings a horror film has had. And then, there is the ghost who is trying to shampoo young Sam when she is taking a bath. Not one but two fantastic Sam Raimi-esque zoom shots, showcase this ghost and the mystical nature of this story. And of course, to round these up, there is Raymond Cruz, the curandero, a priest who has shunned the practices of the Church for localised shaman practices. His comic timing and the way he goes about his job is a breath of fresh air. A story with a unique native setup, The Curse of The Weeping Woman, unfortunately, doesn’t stick to its roots. The success of the Conjuring franchise was how it was rooted to the American culture of the South. This film though is neither worldly nor other-worldly, and is instead stuck somewhere in between. Ultimately, it’s a film that drowns in its cliches.<doc-sep>The horror film is tragically predictable and boring Dingy hallways with flickering lights, billowing curtains disguising paranormal silhouettes, eerie sonic interludes alluding to impending doom. These tried-and-tested scare tactics are de rigueur in most horror films. But it’s a tad disappointing to see their presence in a series like The Conjuring universe. Especially when it’s evident the creators are capable of more. The franchise has now firmly etched itself in the collective consciousness of fans all over the world. The sequels to the films in the universe have lauded for their new take on the genre. The spin-offs on the other hand, haven’t fared so well. After the let-down that was The Nun, the sixth film in the series, The Curse of the Weeping Woman follows suit. Michael Chaves makes his feature-length directorial debut with the film that draws cues from Mexican lore. The Curse of the Weeping Woman Director: Michael Chaves Cast: Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velásquez Storyline: La Llorona is cursed for all eternity, roaming the world and killing children in a bid to get her own back. La Llorona has killed her kids in a fit of rage as a response to her cheating husband. The cursed entity will continue snatching children till she gets her own back. Spoiler alert (though not really): they’re dead and never coming back. But yet the spirit persists. In 1970s Los Angeles, social worker Anna’s (Linda Cardellini) two kids becomes the Weeping Woman’s next prey. With a wisp-thin premise, The Curse of the Weeping Woman struggles to stretch the drama and fear. La Llorona repeatedly attempts to get at the protagonist’s kids when a single try would do. The fact that it’s never quite clear why and how she chooses her victims is distracting till the end. Chaves’ efforts to scare the audience are by the book, never really taking any risks and mind-numbingly predictable. On closer inspection, even the Weeping Woman’s cracked white face, rotting teeth and black tears can’t conjure (get it?) any scares. Only Raymond Cruz as Rafael Olvera shines, in his role of sassy curandero (shaman) who helps Anna and her family. But when writers Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis introduce the Western substitute to magical jadi butis as a La Llorona cure, those eyes will roll.<doc-sep>The latest instalment in James Wan’s Conjuring Universe, The Curse of the Weeping Woman, was released across the world on Friday. Like the series’ previous entries - the first and second Conjuring films, two more Annabelle movies and The Nun - the Curse of the Weeping Woman also claims to be (at least in part) based on a real story. This time it is the Mexican folk tale of La Llorona, a woman who is said to have drowned her two children in a river, and wanders the earth looking to steal others’. SyFy Wire says that while the legend of La Llorona is largely thought of as a Mexican tale - a story that every child is told in their youth - it can trace its origins to Aztec times. “The curse of La Llorona is something we grow up with,” Venezuelan actor Patricia Velazquez, who stars in the film, told Moviefone. “The legend of La Llorona has been handed down from generation to generation, especially in the Latin community, where you’re warned that if you don’t behave, La Llorona will get you,” actor Raymond Cruz told the Los Angeles Times. “Not might get you. Will get you.” This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Marisol Ramirez in a scene from The Curse of La Llorona. (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP) (AP) While some stories depict her as a ‘skull-faced goddess Cihuacoatl’ who is said to have been seen ‘weeping at the crossroads where she abandoned her own child’, more recent avatars portray her a ‘beautiful but hopelessly impoverished village girl named Maria’. Maria caught the eye of a village nobleman - a Spaniard - who pursued her despite the warnings of the villagers. They had two sons. But ultimately, the report says, their differences became too much for their relationship to handle. The nobleman dumped Maria, married another woman, thereby mending his strained relationship with his family. “Maria drowned her sons in grief, and soon after she went missing, her own body washed up on the banks of the river,” the story continues. Different cultures have their own versions of La Llorona. In Norse mythology, the figure Gudrun kills her own children as well, as do the Greek figures of Medea and Lamia, the latter of whom was turned into a child-eating monster when she was found to be Zeus’ mistress by Hera. Medea, in particular, has a lot in common with Maria. “Both women alienate themselves from their worlds for their men, both grow jealous and then rage and act in defiance,” historian Gregorio Luke told the Long Beach Press Telegram in 2011. The Chumash of Southern California have their own connection to La Llorona, as does La Malinche. This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, left, and Linda Cardellini in a scene from The Curse of La Llorona. (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP) (AP) Also read: Is The Nun based on a true story? Here are all the creepy answers you need The Curse of the Weeping Woman isn’t La Llorona’s first depiction on screen. Other film adaptations include La Llorona (1933), La Llorona (1960) and The Curse of the Crying Woman (1961), as well as small appearances on television shows such as Grimm and Supernatural. Also read: Demonic possession, cries for help: Read the chilling true story behind the Conjuring’s creepy Annabelle doll The Curse of the Weeping Woman has received mixed to negative response. The film currently sits at a ‘rotten’ 35% score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It is expected to open to a franchise low $17 million in the United States, according to Box Office Mojo. But this wouldn’t be the first time that the crew has experienced a setback. “We did have some creepy supernatural occurrences,” the director Michael Chaves told the LA Times. “Half the crew actually does believe the house that we shot in was haunted, and there might have been something to that.” Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10<doc-sep>
What we call the Conjuring Universe has become a sprawling franchise of big-budget horror-lite spookfests that pull from every urban legend, folk tale and ghost story one can imagine, usually involving vengeful feminine spirits and the women with whom they do battle. We’ve got hauntings, possessions (“The Conjuring” and “The Conjuring 2”), creepy dolls (“Annabelle” and “Annabelle: Creation”), demonic nuns (“The Nun,” obviously) and now, the ancient ghost of a murderous mother in “The Curse of La Llorona,” directed by Michael Chaves, making his feature debut. Six movies in, there are a few hallmarks of the freaky franchise kicked off by director James Wan in 2013. The films are often set in the 1970s and feature dizzyingly long tracking shots that give the camera (and therefore, the audience) its own set of eyes to reveal or conceal the things that go bump in the night. The look, feel and dynamic movement of the films gives the loosely connected series an aesthetic DNA. It helps here that it’s literally genetic — “The Curse of La Llorona” cinematographer Michael Burgess is the son of “The Conjuring 2” cinematographer Don Burgess, and he shot second unit footage on that film and “The Nun.” The victims of our latest Frightening Female Phantom (all these ghosts have the same makeup effect, don’t they?) are Anna (Linda Cardellini), a widowed social worker, and her two kids, Chris (Roman Christou) and Sam (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen), trying to get by in 1973 Los Angeles. When Anna makes a welfare check on one of her troubled clients, Patricia (Patricia Velasquez), she unknowingly invites the menacing spirit of La Llorona into her life. The weeping woman, clad in billowing white garb, has roamed the Earth since 1673, when she drowned her two sons in a jealous rage caused by her husband’s infidelity, then drowned herself. Now her demonic spirit stalks new children to replace hers. It serves as a spooky story and warning tale in Latinx households — behave, or La Llorona will get you. “The Curse of La Llorona” is a combination ghost story and haunted house horror flick sprinkled with folksy mythology and shamanic rituals. It relies heavily on jump scares rather than anything existentially terrifying, and there are some leaps in magical logic that don’t quite make sense. The script, which must have consisted of dozens of pages reading “La Llorona screams in someone’s face,” or “someone is dragged down a hallway,” is lightweight at best. Surprisingly, the only other writing credit for team Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis is the heartstrings-tugging cystic fibrosis teen romance “Five Feet Apart.” Bittersweet teen love is their thing; horror, not so much. The “Conjuring” spinoffs are like Xerox copies — each new iteration comes out to diminished returns. The structure, ideas and style are there, but there isn’t the same heft of themes or slick craft Wan expressed in his two “Conjuring” films. “The Curse of La Llorona” is middling B-movie schlock that goes for the low-hanging fruit: sequences you know will end with some kind of jump, bump or scream, and jokes that cut the tension and indicate everyone here knows what’s up. We certainly do. Wail as she might, the silly, not scary “The Curse of La Llorona” never reaches the operatic heights that the best of the franchise can offer. Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic. ------------- ‘The Curse of La Llorona’ Rated: R, for violence and terror Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes Playing: Starts April 19 in general release ------------ calendar@latimes.com @LATimesMovies