Lloronas Fluch

Ein gewöhnlicher Genre-Film, der ähnlich wie bei Annabelle 2 die Zuschauer*innen mit der Bedrohung von Kindern attackiert. Wie dem bei klischeehaften Horrorfilmen ohne ein eigenes Gesicht so ist, versucht man, die fehlende Invention im Drehbuch und die mangelnde Logik durch eine laute Tongestaltung und solide Produktionswerte zu verdecken (sprich: es hört sich intensiv an und es sieht gut aus). Es gibt also keinen Grund dazu, sich an den Film in ein paar Jahren zu erinnern. Eine Bindung zum Conjuring Universe gibt es nicht. (17.04.2019)

The anticipated La Llorona is ultimately a big disappointment and The Conjuring 3 is in great danger. Debutant Michael Chaves directs a dull and overly sterile horror film that could have at least leaned on interesting Mexican folklore, but even on that level it fails to impress. The big problem I see is that la Llorona only really focuses on the two central kids, but if it had focused on the other kids in town, more interesting things could have happened. As it is, the plot isn't very entertaining and the actual scares, rather than startling, will wake you from your microsleep. It lacks atmosphere, stronger drive, better pacing and more interesting characters, instead we get a many times seen and tedious mainstream horror hell. A class below The Nun and actually the weakest installment of the Conjuring Universe. The film will please at most teenage girls who go to the cinema to hang out. The best part of the whole movie was the fact that I got it for free. 40% (06.05.2019)

Already when I started watching the film, it was clear to me that I couldn’t expect anything groundbreaking. The greater was my surprise at how enjoyable it was. The authors managed to create a decent atmosphere, they didn't just rely on stupid jump scares (even though they were impossible to avoid) and they added a good dose of suspense. Plus, there were two boogeymen to fight against: an undead Mexican and the American social services, and that's quite a challenge. (06.08.2019)

After the pretty solid Woman in Black, here comes an absolutely unimpressive Woman in White, and it turned out far worse than I expected. What is worth mentioning is the pretty decent idea of a Spanish woman drowning her children and crying in the corner, but the rest follows the same template and brings nothing new. The jump-scares, the atmosphere are nonexistent. The acting and the dialogues felt incredibly artificial to the point of woe. The connections to The Conjuring world are nonexistent. The ratings of films like this should be taken with a grain of salt, because making a film that stands out in this sub-genre is getting increasingly hard given the competition, but this one was such a blasted piece of crap that I definitely won't give it any more. (04.07.2019)

Making horror movies of this type is probably already in every handbook on how to get instantly rich without making exorbitant demands on yourself. Investing a few shiny millions in a simple scare is now almost a 100% guarantee of many times the earnings, so for obvious reasons it doesn't motivate much of anyone to push the creative limits just a little bit further again. Some weasel here has still got a great business plan to milk it out of the Latino audience, (veeeery) loosely tie it to, for some reason, the successful Annabelle franchise, and fill theaters to the ceiling with people who must really not care anymore. It's really exhausting at times to watch the adaptation of a script whose speed of writing must have been limited only by the speed of typing on the keyboard. The main victims of this are of course the characters, who are either useless, stupid, constantly changing their motivations, or simply funny. Behind them trails a central windbag whose abilities are completely random and basically just for effect. One moment she appears in a window, then she's only visible through an umbrella, then suddenly from the curtains, then out of a tablecloth... halfway through the film, I'm prepared for her to pop out of someone's ear at any moment. And honestly, that was the only thing that could help the film to be average. But it didn't. Oops, spoiler. (18.07.2019)