According to Wikipedia, La Llorona hails from Latin American folklore.
La Llorona is the ghost of a woman who lost her children and now cries while looking for them in the river, often causing misfortune to those who are near or hear her. There is no credible source or evidence to the events that inspired the tale/legend of La Llorona.
That’s key to keep in mind. La Llorona is just a legend. She can’t really hurt you. (We hope.)
The Legend of La Llorona
Legends of America has great info about the “Weeping Woman of the Southwest,” including a couple of variations on the legend. But something both share in common are these four traits:
- Water (commonly rivers or lakes)
- Drowned children
- A grief-stricken and tormented mother’s restless spirit
- The spirit is always clad in a white dress
La Llorona Legend 1
In this version the woman has a name, Maria. She was a beautiful woman admired by men both rich and poor — which she adored.
Maria lived a peasant life, but at night she’d hit the town in her best white gown and revel in all the attention men would lavish on her.
The trouble was that she had two young children. Boys. One day they were found drowned by the river. Was it an accident, or had Maria killed them?
La Llorona Legend 2
In this version La Llorona is still sometimes named Maria, but sometimes she’s just identified as a woman who married a wealthy man. The couple had two sons, but he was a bit of a party animal. He preferred drinking and other women to the family man way of life.
One day he passed his wife and their sons while they were walking by a river. He was in the company of another woman, and acknowledged the children but ignored his wife. Full of rage, she threw the boys in the river, where the current swept them away.
She spent the rest of her life mourning them while wandering along the river hoping to find them again –something she would continue to do even after she died.
Her nighttime weeping and wailing scared all who heard it, which made them afraid to go out after dark. They warned their children not to go out also, because she might throw them to their deaths in the water too.
La Llorona’s Curse
Kind of like how the legends vary, so do the details of her curse.
In some versions it doesn’t matter if you’re a man, woman or child. If you get close to her, she’ll kill you.
Other versions say it’s only children she targets for death. Particularly ones out at night by themselves.
The Movie
Wouldn’t such a scary legend make a good foundation for a horror movie? Definitely. Enter stage right: The Curse of La Llorona.
Ignoring the eerie warning of a troubled mother suspected of child endangerment, a social worker and her own small kids are soon drawn into a frightening supernatural realm.
James Wan (of the Saw, Insidious and Conjuring franchises) is one of the producers. Will The Curse of La Llorona be a one-off, somehow eventually be tied to a Conjuring movie, or spawn its own sequels? Guess we’ll have to see how good it does first, huh?
The Curse of La Llorona will be unleashed –er, released— April 19, 2019. Here’s the trailer:
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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