The Conjuring universe had a bumper crop this year with two films being released within four months of each other. The Curse of La Llorona (Michael Chaves, 2019) is technically a spin off—and quite far spun out at that—from the diegesis established in the main Conjuring series and its popular Annabelle sub-series. La Llorona came out in April and the latest chapter on said doll, Annabelle Comes Home (2019), was released in late June. Having grossed nearly $2 billion dollars, the Conjuring franchise shows no sign of slowing down.
A certain intertextuality has long been recognized as a hallmark of horror cinema. The genre is notoriously self-referential. Even so, those who spent a few years drinking in the Paranormal Activity films (2007–2015) beginning in the middle of the last decade will perhaps notice some distinct similarities to The Conjuring franchise. Indeed, The Curse of La Llorona stands out from other films in its universe–similar to the way in which Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (Christopher Landon, 2014) relates to the main story of its series. Both involve Hispanic communities, feature a botánica and even involve some of the same rituals associated with Hispanic folk tradition. This could reflect nothing more than the fact that religions that used to be called “syncretistic” bear certain similarities. Nevertheless, this particular form of religion in horror is a form of exoticism for the white mainstream, and it draws on very similar motifs in these two films. Some backstory might be useful right about now.
Check out the trailer for The Curse of La Llorona:
The fifth Paranormal Activity (The Marked Ones) movie broke the—up until that point—continuous tale of Katie (Katie Featherston), a demon-possessed woman who was involved in raising an army of possessed eighteen-year olds, or alternatively, preparing for the enfleshment of a very powerful demon named Toby, or perhaps both. The Marked Ones shifts to a new setting for its storyline, tying in with the larger series only at a few specific points. No longer in the affluent suburbs of San Diego, the action shifts to a working-class Hispanic neighborhood in Oxnard where time travel is necessary to get the young Katie together with the teenaged principles Jesse (Andrew Jacobs), Hector (Jorge Diaz), and Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh). Jesse is possessed by a demon, and his friends try to rescue him, at the end coming to the house of Katie’s grandmother (Hallie Foote), the head of a coven (“The Midwives”) that brings this episode into the diegesis of the Paranormal Activity franchise. The side-story is somewhat confusing and it is simply dropped in the final installment, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015). (Nothing really ever dies in horror; Paramount recently announced a seventh film of the series is in development.) Compare this to The Conjuring franchise.
Raymond Cruze as the curandero who comes to the aid of Anna (Linda Cardellini)and her family
Michael Chaves’s The Curse of La Llorona builds on the traditional tale of the “weeping woman,” as noted in “La Maldición de la Llorona and the Essence of Horror.” This Medea-like figure drowned her two sons to punish her husband for cheating on her, back in 1673. She then drowned herself. Her damp spirit now seeks other children to replace her own. In Los Angeles three hundred years later, Anna (Linda Cardellini), a social worker, learns that one of her cases has taken a turn for the worse. Patricia (Patricia Velasquez), a single mother, has locked her boys in a closet to keep them safe from “her.” The unnamed “she” is La Llorona (Marisol Ramirez), a ghost that latches onto Anna’s two children after drowning Patricia’s two sons. Since the Catholic Church is only able to help after taking some weeks to investigate, Fr. Perez (Tony Amendola), a local priest, recommends an “unorthodox” solution. He recommends Anna engage a curandero, an ex-priest who is called both a “shaman” and a “faith healer” in the film. His methods are a blend of indigenous practices, science, and Catholicism. He won’t take weeks to decide—his methods give instant results.
Fr. Perez (Tony Amendola) counsels Anna
Once Rafael (Raymond Cruz), the curandero, accompanies Anna and her children home, predictably, all hell breaks loose. A sequence of chase and attack scenes follow with the ghost finally being dissipated after being stabbed with an árbol de fuego-wood cross, since the “fire tree” seems to be her kryptonite. This also highlights an obvious difference with The Marked Ones—the Midwives can’t be stopped. That series ends precisely where the coven wants it to be. Like The Marked Ones, La Llorona fits only very loosely with its home universe. The connection with The Conjuring rests solely on Fr. Perez and his recollection of Annabelle. The religious figure is the linchpin.
The Marked Ones: the botánica keeper gives blessed eggs to Jesse’s grandmother.
Early in the academic study of horror, scholars noted that religion often plays an obvious role in the genre. This was evident as far back as Universal’s Dracula and Frankenstein (both 1931), where traditional Christianity fought back against the unwelcome incursion of evil (coded as non-Christian). Edward Van Sloan’s on-screen introduction to Frankenstein makes this very clear. Many horror movies make use of religious imagery or ideas. Monsters fly in the face of the neatly created order narrated in Genesis. With La Llorona and The Marked Ones, the Christianity portrayed is a hybrid. While this blending of religions is nothing new to scholars of religious studies, to the cinematic viewer it suggests something’s not right. Remember, Fr. Perez comes right out and says it’s “unorthodox” in La Llorona. Traditional Mexican folk beliefs blended with Christianity, like those of African diaspora religions such as “voodoo” and Santeria, find a ready home in horror. The white viewer senses something’s off about this belief structure. When’s the last time eggs were used in a Christian ritual, apart from finding those hidden by an anthropomorphic bunny on Easter morning? And yet, this is what both La Llorona and The Marked Ones utilize.
Curse of La Llorona: the curandero breaks an egg to find evil inside
Monsters, as researchers have long noted, become scary because they don’t fit expected categories. Scholars have long noted that religion and horror form a similar kind of hybrid that generates its own variety of fear. These two films demonstrate that, in a kind of nesting doll of horror, a hybrid religion within an “orthodox” religion within horror contains several tiers of potential fear. Might this be why some lucrative franchises begin to explore exoticized religions as they attempt to feed their own expanding universes?
You can stream both The Curse of La Llorona:
and Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones:
Steve A. Wiggins is an independent scholar who has taught at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Carroll College, and Rutgers and Montclair State Universities. He is the author of Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies (McFarland, 2018). Check out his website. Steve has also written for Horror Homeroom on sex and death in The Lighthouse and The Witch.
