The Curse of La Llorona
Warner Bros. | Release Date: April 19, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
18
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaApr 16, 2019
There is no sense of dread or impending doom; instead it's just one jolt after another. It's like having someone jump out at you every five minutes, and about as much fun. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfApr 17, 2019
A cheap attempt to re-create the spark that has made the "Conjuring" franchise so lucrative. It’s pathetic, and both horror fans and the Latinx community deserve more respect than this lazy attempt at a cash grab. A decent performance from Linda Cardellini doesn’t save a film loaded with predictable jump scares and weak mythos building. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 18, 2019
Cruz is a deadpan treasure, never cracking the hint of a smile even as he delivers some well-timed one-liners. Wish we could have had an entire movie about this guy. Instead, we were cursed with the annoying and shrieking but not even close to terrifying La Llorona. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshApr 19, 2019
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. Read full review
33
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanApr 17, 2019
It’s a paint-by-numbers would-be blockbuster entirely built around the delusional notion that general audiences can’t be scared by anything more thoughtful than recycled jump shocks and derivative monsters. Read full review
40
EmpireIan FreerMay 1, 2019
Seemingly wishing to start another Conjuring off-shoot, this will be lucky to get out the gate. Without an original or fresh bone in its body, The Curse Of La Llorona smacks of unelevated horror for the very easily scared, not to mention pleased. Read full review
68
IGNJim VejvodaMar 17, 2019
The Curse of La Llorona offers some decently suspenseful set-pieces and has a family you care about at its center, but it's also a very familiar and formulaic Annabelle-adjacent entry in the Conjuring franchise. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 18, 2019
The bottom line for every horror tale is the same. Does it chill, get those hairs on the back of your neck to stand up? Is it satisfying, in either a righteous or abandon-all-hope climax? Don’t cry for “La Llorona.” She gets a wet, dirty job done. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 17, 2019
A solidly intense creepout. Granted, it doesn't do anything to rewrite the horror rulebook in any significant way. This won't be remembered as a horror classic by any stretch. "The Exorcist" it is not. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 19, 2019
It is a terrifically scary movie that I wish were more haunting. Read full review
25
New York PostSara StewartApr 16, 2019
The movie’s one saving grace — so to speak — is Raymond Cruz (Tuco from “Better Call Saul”) as a priest turned shaman. He, at least, injects a little wry humor into a film that otherwise bored me to tears. Read full review
25
Original-CinLiam LaceyApr 18, 2019
Perhaps the only scary thing about the new horror movie The Curse of La Llarona is the fear of mispronouncing the title. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 20, 2019
When the movie goes “boo!” and the viewer tries hard to stifle a yawn, something has gone wrong. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloMar 19, 2019
It’s frustratingly simple, the dialogue over-explains everything and while there are a few solid moments of suspense, there’s too much dead air in-between. Read full review
30
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 16, 2019
The dialogue starts at risible and descends from there. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonApr 18, 2019
The Curse Of La Llorona is haunted by a reliance on musty horror tropes. This competent but derivative exorcism film feels like multiplex filler for undemanding audiences who will happily sample any new addition to the Conjuring cinematic universe. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineDerek SmithApr 18, 2019
With The Curse of La Llorona, the Conjuring universe has damned itself to an eternal cycle of rinse and repeat. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubDanette ChavezApr 17, 2019
More fitfully funny than it is frightening, The Curse Of La Llorona might be the first film in the Conjuring universe to remain a standalone. Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrApr 18, 2019
Plotlines are abandoned at will, there are set ups for things that never come back and some suspiciously malleable “monster-logic” that makes the whole endeavor seem a little lazy and half-baked. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMay 5, 2019
While it’s nice to see Cardellini nab a rare lead (in the middle of an unusually fruitful time with turns in Green Book, Avengers: Endgame and Netflix comedy Dead to Me), the script fails to provide her with enough meat, despite her predicament, ultimately stranding her with a rather standard shrieking mother role. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 16, 2019
A ho-hum horror flick. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 18, 2019
The scares are plentiful and sometimes ticklishly funny in The Curse of La Llorona, an enjoyably old-fashioned ghost story. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRyan OliverMar 16, 2019
It’s technically impressive and faulty in equal measure, expunging most of the substance in favor of occasionally effective, but mostly cheap, scares. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 2, 2019
Raymond Cruz’s solemn performance as a skilled Mexican exorcist does the job, but the film misses a trick in not casting a more heavyweight veteran – Edward James Olmos? – to lend a little of that Max von Sydow ballast. Read full review
49
TheWrapYolanda MachadoApr 23, 2019
It isn’t to say that The Curse of La Llorona is bad; it definitely had the crowd I watched it with screaming in horrified delight and laughing at just the right moments. But it lacks any cultural understanding of its subject and is a missed opportunity to connect to the plethora of ghost stories the Latino culture contains in its soul. Que pena! Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 19, 2019
It’s the opposite of frightening: a sludgy collection of tired jump scares, inexpertly mounted period décor—this time we’re in a too-shiny 1973 Los Angeles—and a continued slump into generic blahness. Read full review
50
VarietyJoe LeydonMar 16, 2019
An efficiently formulaic shocker. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMar 16, 2019
It’s all so very by-the-books, undefined, carbon-copy Conjurverse refurbishment without a guiding voice, which makes for a disappointingly one-note watch that barely raises a hair. At least The Nun has personality – something The Curse of La Llorona’s waterlogged redundancy cannot boast. Read full review
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