It's that time again, Warner Bros. latest attempt at adding a semi-decent instalment to their 'The Conjuring' Universe. I managed to see a pre-showing of this movie so I went into the film completely blind to critic reviews.

Now, you'd be forgiven for not even noticing this film was part of The Conjuring Universe. The only relation I saw that it had to the universe was a shared character and a reference to Annabelle. The film didn't seem to add anything to the already expanding collection of films but that isn't to say that the film itself wasn't exceptional.

The Curse of La Llorona is director Michael Chaves' take on on the Mexican folklore legend of La Llorona, the weeping woman. The original tale states that La Llorona was a young woman named Maria of gave birth to 2 sons to a travelling nobleman. The man eventually disappeared for long periods and time and returned only to pay attention to his two sons. In a fit of blind rage, Maria drowned her two sons in a nearby river. Upon realising what she had done she searched for the boys but couldn't find them. Days later, she was found dead by the same river. Her ghost now haunts Mexico searching for her children. 

The legend described in the film is almost identical albeit with a few changes. I appreciate how the director kept the legend as close to true as he could. La Llorona herself was perhaps one of the Conjuring Universe's creepiest villains, more so than the Nun, whose 2018 film is my favourite instalment so far. 

The acting in the film was reasonably good for a horror movie, particularly Breaking Bad's Raymond Cruz as ex-priest Rafael Olvera. Although sparse, the writer's attempt at bits of humour in the film fell mostly flat. 

La Llorona was an adequate horror film in itself but added very little to an already mixed-quality universe. In my opinion the film should have been kept a standalone movie so that the writers can focus solely on making a great standalone movie.

All-in-all, this film was indeed jumpy at times, reasonably acted but didn't add much to the universe it was trying to be a part of. 

What did you think of the film? Do you think it added anything to the universe?

Let me know in the comments and I'll reply to them all!