The Curse of La Llorona exploits this folktale in service of Universal’s “The Conjuring Universe,” the ever-expanding cinematic continuum that began with The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016), spinning off at times into the prequel Annabelle (2014), pre-prequel Annabelle: Creation (2017), and last year’s prequel The Nun.
They have subtly connected ‘ The Curse of La Llorona ’ to ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Annabelle’ franchise.
The Curse of La Llorona is the latest addition to the franchise of the brilliant The Conjuring universe.
The movie relies completely on jump scares, without any of the tension and atmosphere that have made The Conjuring movies stand out.
But its true location clearly is a distant corner of producer James Wan’s “The Conjuring” extended horror-movie universe, which gets a fleeting wink-wink hat-tip early on with a clever cameo appearance by Tony Amendola in his “Annabelle” role as Father Perez.
A kindly priest (Tony Amendola) declines to help Anna, because he once got involved with evil himself through a frightening doll called – wait for it – Annabelle (now you see how this ties into "The Conjuring" universe).