Out of all the horror films in cinemas right now (who knew April was horror season), ‘The Cure of the Weeping Woman’ is your run-of-the-mill, average "demon hunts after family". While it’s not game-changing, for what it’s worth, it’s a fun experience. It’s a simple 90-minute jump scare film, and while you’ve seen it all before, the film has a feeling that it's letting you in on its clichés, allowing you to laugh at the tropes and just enjoy the ride. It’s not too concerned with scaring you (just look at La Llorona's bland design), but that's not to say it isn’t creative. There are some nice reveals, nice long takes, and use of the certain props that make this a step above things like ‘The Nun’ or ‘Slender Man’.
Speaking of ‘The Nun’, I can confirm that this is in fact a part of the ever-growing ‘Conjuring’ franchise, and while this isn’t much of a bold statement, this is probably the best spinoff they have made to date. The marketing has gone back and forth between from ‘The Conjuring’ universe and from the makers of ‘The Conjuring’, but they make sure you know this is a part of that world.
SWITCH: 'THE CURSE OF THE WEEPING WOMAN' TRAILER
The film stars superwoman Linda Cardellini as Anna (‘Scooby-Doo’, ‘Green Book’) as a widowed social worker, raising her two young children in the 1970s. When one of her cases leads her to suspect child abuse, she places the children in a home, but now out in the open, La Llorona is free to get them, after the children die, La Llorona turns to Anna’s children’s as her next victims - but being a boss-ass mum, Anna isn’t going to let that happen.
Without Cardellini in the lead, this film would have been much more painful to sit through. She gives so much life to the role, and you can tell she isn’t here for a pay check; she is acting her butt off. The rest of the acting is fine; the kids where quite good and they only get annoying because the film makes them do stupid things, not because of their acting. There's a whole scene where they can't break the line of herbs, and if they do La Llorona will re-enter the house, but oh no, the little girl's doll is on the other side of them... I think you can guess what happens.
There are a lot of dumb horror tropes like closing a door means your safe - even La Llorona goes, "Well, dang, they closed the door on me. I guess that means I can’t get them. Oh well, I’ll try again tomorrow." La Llorona doesn’t really do much; a lot of scenes are just a character walking around trying to find her, a jump scare happens, she screams, end scene. She never really torments the family - she is just kind of annoying them. We are told she is this child murderer but never really see her kill any kids (I’m guessing to keep the rating down so teenagers can get in) but she isn’t really scary. At least even if you aren’t scared of ‘The Nun’ and ‘Annabelle’, you can see why they they have become horror icons.
This is a nice safe horror movie. It isn’t painful to sit through, nor is it game-changing - it's right in the middle.
One thing that I absolutely love about this movie is the title. In Australia, it’s been titled ‘The Curse of the Weeping Woman’, but in most countries it’s called ‘The Curse of La Llorona'. Title changes usually bug me (‘Bad Moms 2’ instead of ‘A Bad Moms Christmas’... come on, guys!) but this one I just find hilarious because I feel it’s because Australians would struggle saying La Llorona at the box office.
‘The Curse of the Weeping Woman’ is a nice safe horror movie. It isn’t painful to sit through like ‘Truth or Dare’ or ‘Rings’, nor is it game-changing like ‘Us’ or ‘The Conjuring’; it's right in the middle. If you have a spare 90 minutes, check out 'Weeping Woman' - it won’t anger you like a lot of modern horror and you will find it a fun sit, with some creative scares and decent acting.