I was honestly skeptical of The Conjuring universe at first. I enjoyed the first film, sure. But I could only really view it as yet another haunted house movie – extremely formulaic and predictable no matter how well-executed the special effects were. But I must admit that the further the universe is expanded, the richer it seems. Just as I get a massive kick out of comparing all the Marvel movies and trying to find the ways in which they connect or what their chronological timeline looks like, I get an equal kick out of how this world has been developed and extended to become its own hugely successful franchise. It’s not easy for horror franchises to really hold onto success because how do you continue to come up with new material that will genuinely frighten people without becoming repetitive or purely jump-scare based? Most of the time sequels, prequels, spin-offs end up being ripped to shreds thanks to the classic ‘huge build-up, massive let-down’ pattern. Some are clever and self-reflexive enough to acknowledge how crazy it is to keep beating a dead horse and so they continue making sequel after sequel, each intentionally stupider than the last (I’m thinking of the Child’s Play franchise in particular here, which I love). But many others are not that smart and they end up tarnishing their originally glistening reputation with their most recent exhausted work. I think The Conjuring world cracked the code on how to keep relevant and stay provocative: using real stories, real people, and urban legends.

Who doesn’t get excited goosebumps when a horror film begins with the disclaimer that the story is based on or inspired by real events? Yes, we all are well aware that these statements should be taken with a grain of salt since there is generally a LOT of creative license deployed in Hollywood movies. But let’s just suspend our disbelief for a second and be honest with ourselves – we still get chills if we’re told it’s all true. Because that would mean that somewhere outside of, but in parallel with, our own mundane, normal, safe existence there lies a place, thing, or family that has experienced some serious shit. They have seen or felt things we can only imagine (horror films help drive that imagination, of course) and we want to believe at least just for a second that they’re not crazy people having vivid hallucinations. It adds some depth and complexity to this world that intrigues us because our human, morbid curiosity draws us towards the unexplainable. Those that envisioned The Conjuring universe must have known this and boy did they run with it. As far as I can tell, every Conjuring film so far has been inspired (either fully or in part) by true events, in particular the actions and experiences of Ed and Lorraine Warren (actual real-life demonologists – I had no idea that was actually a thing outside of horror movies so that was quite a revelation for me). The Curse of La Llorona is no exception.

La Llorona is a Mexican urban legend that has paralysed children with fear for generations. The myth goes that many decades ago, a beautiful bride married her perfect man and had two wonderful sons. But unfortunately the husband engaged in a sordid love affair with another woman, which triggered some serious consequences. The bride was so enraged that she decided to drown her two children before killing herself. It puts a whole new meaning to “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”… Anyway, from this point on, her sinful, tainted soul lives on to hunt down and kill children as she searches for her two lost boys. It is said that before the torment begins, you can hear her weeping, hence the name ‘the weeping woman’. So if you hear sobs – run.

I have read that this myth is so prevalent and so scarring for a great number of children growing up, especially in places like Mexico. I can only imagine what watching this movie would do to those kids, now grown up. But I think it could only make it better. The ‘realness’ of it, the almost tangible nature of a story told to you time and time again must bring this movie to life in ways that I wish I could fully understand. Was it the scariest film I’ve ever seen? No. Was it the most riveting film I’ve ever seen? No. It did still feel like a pretty classic haunting spiel where it begins as a slow-burn with anticipatory suspense that makes you want to scream with exasperation, to the climactic night-time capture scene where the demon no longer even tries to hide – it’s just all-out torture and madness. All to be followed with the positively-charged denouement where the protagonist manages to banish the demon in one way or another (a holy cross in this case – so beautifully and spiritually symbolic, but not original) but there still remains a strange, eerie sense of ambiguity as you question whether the evil is well and truly gone. You’ve all seen it a thousand times, as have I. But we enjoy it because it kicks into gear more of our senses than just the optical. So I don’t really care that this film lacked an extra component that made it super unique or revolutionary. It taught me about an urban legend that I otherwise probably would never have known about, no animals died in it (I hate it when they kill off the dogs – that just isn’t fair, man), and it really exemplified the power of words, myths, and storytelling. Confirming children’s greatest fears? That is a great concept for a horror.

So thank you Conjuring universe for making all those freaky ‘true’ tales come to life on-screen in such a vivid way that you forget that they were just imagined stories in the first place. You don’t have to be overly one-of-a-kind and subversive when you’re just supposedly recounting something that has been told for centuries. And it’s in knowing that trick that The Conjuring universe is able to keep churning out otherwise-mediocre films in a way that makes them seem terrifying, visceral, and new. Kudos for that.