BLU-RAY REVIEW

Curse Of La Llorona, The

Picture4
Sound5
Immersive4
WSR Score3
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(Studio/Distributor):
Warner Bros . Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
3000081223
(MPAA Rating):
R
(Rating Reason):
Violence and terror
(Retail Price):
$35.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
(Running Time In Minutes):
93
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
8/6/2019
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
(Director):
Michael Chaves
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD 7.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(Subtitles):

Set in 1973 Los Angeles, "The Curse Of La Llorona" tells the story of Anna Tate-Garcia (Cardellini), a social worker and widowed single mom struggling to balance the two roles while still coping with the loss of her husband. 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. (Gary Reber)

Special features include the featurettes: "The Myth Of La Llorona" (HD 02:29), "Behind The Crew" (HD 09:43) and "The Making Of A Movie Monster" (HD 05:53); six deleted scenes (HD 11:10); storyboards; upfront previews and a Movies Anywhere digital code.

The 2.40:1 1080p AVC picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, upconverted to 2160p with greater resolution and luminance, was photographed digitally using Panavision cameras and sourced from a 2K master Digital Intermediate format. The picture exhibits a creepy, and at times, slightly desaturated appearance. Color fidelity otherwise is essentially natural with a warm overall filtered hue appearance. Contrast is generally good considering the subdued stylization. Blacks are deep and solid, but not always revealing of detail, as is shadow delineation. Bright highlights such as car lights and spotlighting appear natural and not exaggerated. Resolution is well defined, especially during close-ups, including the horrific presence of La Llorona. The movie's overall visual character is dark, and a dark home theatre setting is required to optimize the image quality. This is a nicely crafted stylized picture that delivers effective suspense and terror. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is nicely crafted with a compelling surround soundfield. In one scene the sound of a door closing is impressively panned around the soundfield. Similarly, other sound effects are also directonalized and panned within the soundfield. The music score is haunting and at times extremely powerful in enhancing sound effects, such as numerous door poundings. The music is very dynamic and occupies a wide and deep soundstage, extending aggressively to the four surround channels. The music effectively heightens the terror and completely fills the soundfield. Fidelity is excellent. Atmospherics are nicely and effectively integrated into the mix. Foley sound effects are in perfect sync. Deep bass extends to sub-25 Hz frequencies with powerful energy in the .1 LFE channel. Dialogue is intelligible throughout with good spatial integration.

The Immersive Sound element features a height layer extension of the music score, which enhances the spatial dimensionality of the soundscapes. Other elements include voices, crying, electrical shortage sounds, bangs, car warning blinks, thunder, a powerful wind blast, subtle rain on the house roof, door slams, La Llorona's screams, La Llorona's whispering, a doctor office announcement, water disturbance in the bathtub, break-in sounds, chimes blowing in the wind, and some very minor atmospherics, all of which is used as accents to invoke terror.

This is a haunting soundtrack with effective holosonic® spherical surround properties. (Gary Reber)