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The Curse of La Llorona | SXSW Movie Review

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When The Conjuring released in 2013 it was a surprise hit earning over 15 times its original budget. Although the film wasn’t immune to the clichés of the genre, director James Wan executed them so effectively that nearly every viewer succumbed to fear.

The success has led to numerous sequels, spin-offs, and spin-off sequels, and soon Wan will be passing the torch to Michael Chaves to lead the mainline series. Before that, Chaves gets a trial run with the tangentially related The Curse of La Llorona, a film that unfortunately feels all too familiar.

Set in the early 1970s, the film follows social worker and single mom Anna (Linda Cardellini) who intervenes after discovering Patricia (Patricia Velásquez), a mother in her caseload, has kept her children locked in a closet for several days. Soon after being placed in foster care the two boys are found dead in a reservoir.

Believing Patricia to be the culprit Anna seeks her out, but soon discovers it is the work of La Llorona, a malevolent spirit who murdered her own children and now seeks to take the lives of others’. Blaming Anna for the loss, Patricia prays to La Llorona to take the social worker’s young son and daughter instead leaving Anna to hunt for a way to break the curse.

La Llorona’s underlying conceit places a considerable amount of weight on the matriarchal role, something the studio undoubtedly understood when they cast such a familiar face for the part, and Cardellini carries this responsibility without issue. She balances a maternal resilience with the utter terror that accompanies this type of situation, and is the biggest factor in creating any engagement with the audience.

Consistently working against said engagement is the lack of freshness in the script and the scares. It’s an effort to get spooked when you can correctly count out the beats before the next appearance of La Llorona who appears quite frequently, and while the design elicits a reaction the first time it dwindles over time. It also suffers from groan-worthy character decisions. This happens frequently enough that by the last third scenes that are designed to draw out tension instead invoke laughter.

This feeling is amplified when viewed with a large crowd which interestingly inspires a positive viewpoint. It’s easy to see why these movies have continued to garner so much attention and money. La Llorona does feel formulaic in the way that a Marvel movie can down to the well timed instances of levity; in this case brought to you by a rather fun performance from Raymond Cruz. Yet, when viewed with a crowd like the one at SXSW the eye rolls are done in unison and the theater can breathe a collective sigh of disbelief at the stupidity of a character decision. There’s something of worth, albeit distant from what made the original films so buzzworthy, in the communal nature of this popcorn horror.

For those who have been fans of the Conjuring universe, including the “bad” entries, thus far seeing this opening weekend could inspire a fun theater experience although largely at the film’s expense. For everyone else, here’s hoping that Chaves learns from The Curse of La Llorona and takes a few more chances next time he steps up to the plate.

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Paramount+ Reveals Official Main Title Sequence for the Upcoming Series TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

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During the TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES panel earlier today at San Diego Comic Con, Paramount+ revealed the official main title sequence for the series. The sequence is composed by EMMY® nominee, Matt Mahaffey, known for his work on Sanjay and Craig, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie and much more. 

From the studios of the Mutant Mayhem film, the all-new Paramount+ original series TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES explores the adventures of everyone’s favorite pizza-loving heroes as they emerge from the sewers onto the streets of NYC. Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey are faced with new threats and team up with old allies to survive both teenage life and villains lurking in the shadows of the Big Apple. The series is produced by Nickelodeon Animation and Point Grey Pictures.

TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES is executive produced by Chris Yost (The Mandalorian, Thor: Ragnarok) and Alan Wan (Blue Eye Samurai, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2012 Series]). Production is overseen for Nickelodeon by Claudia Spinelli, Senior Vice President, TV Series Animation, Nickelodeon, and Nikki Price, Director of Development and Executive in Charge of Production.

In addition to the upcoming new series, stream all things Turtles on Paramount+.

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Comic-Con 2024: Those About to Die Activation

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DISNEY+ CASTS DANIEL DIEMER AS FAN-FAVORITE ‘TYSON’IN SEASON TWO OF “PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS”

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 in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con, Rick Riordan and Disney+ revealed that Daniel Diemer (“Under the Bridge”) will star as fan-favorite cyclops “Tyson” in the epic adventure series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” Diemer joins Walker Scobell (Percy Jackson), Leah Sava Jeffries (Annabeth Chase) and Aryan Simhadri (Grover Underwood) as a series regular. The Disney+ Original series from Disney Branded Television and 20th Television will start filming its second season next week in Vancouver.

Season two of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is based on the second installment of Disney Hyperion’s best-selling book series titled “The Sea of Monsters” by award-winning author Rick Riordan. In the new season, Percy Jackson returns to Camp Half-Blood one year later to find his world turned upside down. His friendship with Annabeth is changing, he learns he has a cyclops for a brother, Grover has gone missing, and camp is under siege from the forces of Kronos. Percy’s journey to set things right will take him off the map and into the deadly Sea of Monsters, where a secret fate awaits the son of Poseidon.

Diemer stars as Tyson – a young Cyclops who grew up all alone on the streets, and finds it difficult to survive in the human world.  Shy and awkward, with a heart almost as big as he is, Tyson soon discovers that Poseidon is his father, which means Percy Jackson is his half-brother… and that Tyson may have finally found a home. 

Diemer recently starred in the Hulu limited series “Under the Bridge” based off the critically acclaimed book of the same name and a tragic true story of a missing teen girl in Vancouver in 1997. He will next star in the indie “Thug” opposite Liam Neeson and Ron Perlman for director Hans Petter Moland. Daniel was recently seen as the lead in the indie “Supercell” opposite Alec Baldwin and Skeet Ulrich and the lead in the film “Little Brother” opposite Phil Ettinger and JK Simmons. Daniel can also be seen in the Netflix series “The Midnight Club” and recently starred as the male lead in the breakout hit Netflix feature “The Half Of It” from producer Anthony Bregman and director Alice Wu. He is a graduate of Victoria Academy of Dramatic Arts in Vancouver.

Created by Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg, season two of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is executive produced by Steinberg and Dan Shotz alongside Rick Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, Craig Silverstein, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Bert Salke, The Gotham Group’s Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg, James Bobin, Jim Rowe, Albert Kim, Jason Ensler and Sarah Watson.

The first season of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is available on Disney+

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