Put a woman and kids in peril in supernatural miasma, and the rest of the horror film can be predicted. Michael Chavez’s The Curse Of The Weeping Woman, comes up with La Lorona, a female ghoul from Mexican legend, that adds to producer James Wan’s The Conjuring kind of horror film conveyor belt.
Social worker and single mother Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini) rescues two kids locked in a closet by their terrified mother Patricia (Patricia Velasquez), who claims she is protecting them from danger. The children are found dead a while later, and the mother is suspected.
The real killer is La Llorona, The Weeping Woman (Marisol Ramirez), the evil spirit of a 17th-century Mexican woman, who drowned her own two children to punish her unfaithful husband, and is “condemned to roam the earth searching for children to take their place” — that is, kill unsuspecting children. A grieving Patricia, blames Anna for the loss of her kids and wishes La Llorona upon her children Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) and Chris (Roman Christou).
First-time director uses all the tried and tested horror devices — rushing wind, creaking floorboard, slamming doors, dripping taps — and of course the weeping spook dressed in a white gown and veil. To fight her is former priest Rafael Olvera (Raymond Cruz) who has turned into shaman, spouting the usual mumbo-jumbo. (For some inexplicable reason, the film is set in the 1970s). This character brings some life and unintended humour to the otherwise dreary film and Tony Amendola shows up as his Annabelle character Father Perez.
Still, if a film can muster up the requisite number of scares and at least one jump-out-of-the-seat moment, genre fans should be satisfied, but this won’t make it to any top horror movies’ lists.
