The ever-evolving Conjuring universe has slowly grown into over a billion-dollar franchise, which is even more impressive for a series of R-rated horror films. Up until this point, The Conjuring universe has effectively been able to predict which monsters and demonic entities from its core films are deserving of spin-offs and deeper looks, but The Curse of La Llorona takes a decidedly different approach. The Curse of La Llorona’s demonic “Weeping Woman” gets her origins from Mexican folklore, rather than some pre-existing Conjuring film. La Llorona may market itself as a standalone entry, but it does occupy a space in the same universe as Annabelle, Valak the Nun, and the Crooked Man. While The Curse of La Llorona can be enjoyed without any previous knowledge from The Conjuring franchise, it still presents a supernatural story full of twists and surprises. So for those of you that are still scratching their heads over The Curse of La Llorona’s ending, here’s a helpful explanation of how this terrifying horror is defeated. Social worker and single mother, Anna Tate-Garcia (Linda Cardellini), starts to become suspicious when one of her cases, the Alvarez family, succumbs to particularly unnerving circumstances. Anna can’t quite shake what she witnesses and as she heads further down this rabbit hole, she begins to realize that there’s something far more sinister going on here than a case of child abuse and neglectful parenting. It’s not long until Anna makes connections between the disturbing scene she encountered and the recent strangeness that’s been affecting her own family. Olvera resorts to a series of drastic methods in his attempts to eliminate La Llorona. The tools in his arsenal include the sanctified tears of the “Weeping Woman” and the seeds of the “fire tree,” an element that La Llorona is vulnerable to since these trees were the one “witness” to her crimes against her children. All of these tactics are temporarily helpful, as well as Llorona’s necklace, which is able to briefly cloud her judgment, but in the end it’s a mix of La Llorona’s lore and brute force that ends her. Anna is able to stab La Llorona in the heart with a cross that’s made out of the “fire tree.” It may seem a little ridiculous, but it’s a conclusion that at least does its homework and makes more sense than the bonkers blood of Jesus solution to The Nun. The Curse of La Llorona goes out on an uplifting note, unlike some of the other offerings in The Conjuring universe, and while it certainly seems like the terror of the “Weeping Woman” has been put to rest, it’s not impossible that she could return to plague children in future films.
