Is The Curse of La Llorona Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's mostly a ghost's face appearing suddenly while the violins scream.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
The jumps are gone when the credits roll, though you may look at your bathtub twice.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Watch it before dark, because it is built on sudden appearances and loud violins.
The Curse of La Llorona runs ninety-three minutes and is set in Los Angeles in 1973. A caseworker finds two boys locked in a room and decides the door is the problem, which is the first of several decisions the movie holds against her.
The premise, briefly
In 1973 Los Angeles, a widowed caseworker ignores a client's warning, and a weeping ghost from an old legend starts coming for her children.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Anna drives a cross through La Llorona's chest and destroys her. Anna, Chris and Sam survive, though Patricia's two sons drowned earlier. In the last scene Anna looks into a puddle by the road.
The scene you're dreading
The bathtub scene, after the burns appear: La Llorona tries to drown Sam, and leaves marks on Anna's arm. A second attempt at drowning Anna and Sam in the pool comes the night Rafael arrives. Both fail.
The dog
No dog dies in The Curse of La Llorona.
It is a ghost story made of sudden appearances and loud violins, and knowing the family gets out takes most of the dread away.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A caseworker opens the locked door
The movie opens in 1673 in Spanish Mexico, with a family out in a field where the youngest son hands his mother a necklace. Later he goes on a hike and sees his mother drowning his brother in a stream. He runs, she catches him, and everyone assumes he drowned too. The story then jumps ahead three centuries to 1973 Los Angeles, where Anna is a recently widowed caseworker looking into why Patricia Alvarez's two sons keep missing school. At Patricia's house she finds the boys locked behind a door. Patricia warns her to stay away from it and attacks her when she doesn't, and the police take Patricia away. The boys, Carlos and Tomas, tell Anna to leave them in the room because it keeps them protected. She ignores that and drives them to a children's shelter.
At the shelter Tomas sleepwalks and Carlos follows him, and a woman in a white dress appears to both boys and attacks them. They are found drowned in a river. Anna goes to the scene with her own kids, Chris and Sam, who wait in the car. Patricia, accused of the killings, screams that Anna is to blame for taking her sons away, and that she was trying to stop a force she calls La Llorona. Chris wanders out of the car, meets a weeping woman, and comes back with burns on his wrist. The next day Sam gets identical burns. Anna talks to Father Perez about whether to believe in the myth, and she questions Patricia, whose alibi covers the hours when her sons died. Patricia admits that she hated Anna enough to pray to La Llorona to take Anna's children and return her own.
Sam's doll refuses to be left behind
La Llorona tries to drown Sam in the bathtub, and leaves burn marks on Anna's arm too. Father Perez compares the case to one he handled involving a haunted porcelain doll, and sends Anna to Rafael Olvera, a former priest who is now a curandero. Rafael comes to the house and sets up items for protection. That night is the scene people brace for: La Llorona attacks over and over and goes after Anna and Sam in the pool, trying to drown them, because Sam will not let go of her doll. During the struggle, Anna pulls the necklace off La Llorona. The attempt fails, but the family is in more danger than before.
The ending, explained
Patricia shows up with a gun and tries to hand Anna's children to La Llorona. Then she decides no other mother should feel what she felt, lets Anna go, and Anna runs to help her kids. Sam and Chris flee, and Chris holds up the necklace La Llorona's son once gave her. For a moment she looks human and strokes his face as if he were her real son. Sam then accidentally uncovers a mirror, La Llorona changes back and attacks, and Anna drives a cross from Rafael through her chest. The cross is carved from a tree beside the river where she drowned her children, the only witness to what she did. The spirit is destroyed. Anna, Chris and Sam survive, and they thank Rafael. Once he has gone, Anna glances at a puddle by the road.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Curse of La Llorona scary?
Yes, The Curse of La Llorona is a 5 out of 10. The dread level is low: it relies on a ghost appearing suddenly with loud violins, and it is over when the credits roll.
How does The Curse of La Llorona end?
Anna destroys La Llorona by driving a cross through her chest, and Anna, Chris and Sam survive. The last scene has Anna looking into a puddle by the road.
Does the dog die in The Curse of La Llorona?
No, no dog dies in The Curse of La Llorona.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Curse of La Llorona?
Nobody has confirmed whether The Curse of La Llorona has a scene after the credits.
Who is La Llorona in The Curse of La Llorona?
La Llorona is the ghost of a mother who drowned her own children in a river in 1673 in Spanish Mexico. In The Curse of La Llorona she goes after children, leaves burns on their wrists, and tries to drown them.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of The Curse of La Llorona is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can find out how The Curse of La Llorona ends without a bathtub in sight. Install Scaredy Cat and it blurs horror before you see it.
