The Curse Of La Llorona Blu-ray Review

The following Blu-ray was provided to me by Warner Brother for review.  Thoughts and opinions are my own.
 
La Llorona translates to “Weeping Woman”.  She is a legend of Mexican folklore.  The original legend is that of a woman named Maria who came from a poor family but was the most beautiful woman in the village. She meet a wealthy man who fell in love with her the second he saw her.  His family approved so he and Maria began a new life together away from his family.  They had 2 children together, but as time passed her husband began to fall out of love with her as she grew older.  One day he left her for another woman.  She became insane and drowned her two children, then committed suicide.  She was denied entry into heaven and has to wander the earth looking for her children. She spends the nights wandering around crying and as legend states if you hear her cries you must run as you will be met with death.
 
Now granted this is just an old urban legend, but urban legends make for good horror films.  And now that ghost and possession films are at a fever pitch at the box office The Legend of La Llorona has been translated into a feature length film.  It’s a great one to translate as La Llorona has already been featured on an episode of Supernatural, Grimm, and countless Mexican horror films, both live action and animated.  As Warner already has a giant universe with their Conjuring series and Spin-offs La Llorona is the newest film in that shared universe.
 
Much like the legend the film opens to find a young boy back in the 1600’s discovering his mother drowning his brother in a river.  He tries to escape but she catches him and drowns him as well.  The film cuts to 1973 Los Angeles where we meet Anna Garcia.  She’s a case worker who is performing a welfare check on two young children. She finds the children locked in a small room, but before she can release them their mother jumps and attacks her in a fit of madness. Anna fights her off and the mother is arrested.  She takes the children who are frightened to leave, yelling at Anna they need to stay locked up for their own protection. She takes them to Child Services and that night they see a woman in a white dress in the mirror who smashes through it and takes the boys. 
 
The children are found the next day dead, drowned in the town river.  There mother is being arrested for the killings, but she blames it on Anna saying if she had not taken them they would still be alive as she was hiding them from La Llorona. Unfortunately for Anna gets called  to investigate the scene while she is with her children.  She tells them to stay in the car but her son Chris decides to see what’s happening and is grabbed by La Llorona. It burns his arm and send him into shock.  The following day her other son Sam is visited by La Llorona and burned as well.
 
She blames Patricia, the mother of the boys who were killed in the beginning who tells Anna that she did not harm her children, but because she blames Anna for her owns kids deaths she has prayed for La Llorona to kill her children so that she could bring hers back from the dead. When Anna witness La Llorona first hand she goes to tell her local priest who has her contact his old friend Father Perez, who if you follow these films was the priest who helped to stop Annabelle.
 
Ghost movies have never been my thing, but I enjoyed this one.  Its fast paced, not overly bogged down with back story and plot, and features pretty likeable characters.  It also runs short, about 90min which is just plenty for a film like this.  Not much blood, but loaded up with jump scares.  In fact my wife jumped about 19 times before I stopped counting.  It’s a real fun film for horror fans.
 
Warner Brother has released this on a beautiful Blu-ray transfer with fantastic audio as well.  Every cry from La Llorona and sweeping motion you hear from your surround sound.  Its as if your house is being haunted as you watch the film.  Combine this with the crisp transfer and you have a very atmospheric and creepy film on your hands. It even contains a tons of featurettes and special features.3
 
If your all in on the Conjuring Universe then this is another must watch for you.  If your not really into those films I still say to try this one out.  As I said it’s a great tightly made horror film that is sure to please anyone looking for a good creepy film to watch.
 
Overall 3out of 5 Stars