Dino-Ray Ramos
New Line Cinema didnt come to Comic-Con to play. They came to terrify. On preview night of the fanboy/fangirl confab, New Line gave a hearty helping of scares at their second annual ScareDiego.
A whole army of New Line horror directors and actors were on hand for the presentation with James Wan, the mastermind behind The Conjuring cinematic universe, leading the charge. But it was the newly titled The Curse of La Llorona that stole the show for the night.
Directed by Michael Chaves and written by Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis, La Llorona is based on the real-life Latinx folklore of the ghost of a weeping woman who essentially terrorizes and attempts to take children and scares the hell out of anyone who comes in her way. Chaves was joined on stage by producer Wan as well as the films stars Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, and Patricia Velasquez.
Set in the 70s L.A., Cardellini plays a widowed social worker raising her two kids. As she investigates a case, she begins to find similarities between it and a supernatural entity that is her own family. Yup. Its La Llorona.
A generous first look of the movie was shown and it lives up to Wans knack for jump scares, tension and monstrous beings that stop at nothing to make everyones lives miserable by haunting them all the live long day.
Cruz and Velasquez grew up in the culture so they are well aware of La Llorona. They shared stories about growing up with the fable and told chilling tales of supernatural occurrences that happened while making the movie. While filming a scene, Cruz had an unbreakable bracelet suddenly break into pieces while Velasquez had a chilling run-in with what she believes was the real La Llorona at her home.
Velasquez says that La Llorona “lives and breathes” in the Latinx culture and the movie pays so much respect to that.
“We were scared sh*tless with La Llorona,” said Cruz. “Now we can share that with you.”
He then adds with a laugh, “La Llorona predates Trump when it comes to separating children from their parents.”
New Line also served the ScareDiego audience a “making of” montage of It: Chapter Two which was introduced Wan and screenwriter Gary Dauberman as well as director Andy Muschietti via video. He guaranteed that the sequel to the first installment — which he also directed — will be scary, saying “bring your adult diapers to the theater” when you watch it.
Considering they just started production on the film, it was another generous look at the sequel with behind-the-scenes prep as well as the first footage of adult versions of the Losers Club. We finally get to see a glimpse of them interacting as adults. The gang was all featured: James McAvoy plays Bill, Bill Hader is Richie, Jessica Chastain is Beverly, James Ransone is Eddie, Andy Bean is Stanley, Jay Ryan is Ben and Isaiah Mustafa is Mike.
The Nun rounding out this panel of glorious horror. Wan came back out with Dauberman once again (he wrote the film and is set to write and direct the next Annabelle movie) as well as director Corin Hardy and actresses Taissa Farmiga and Ingrid Bisu to talk about making the movie and trying their hardest to give too much away.
Again, New Line didnt skimp on the footage from the movie which is considered the start of the Conjuring universe. They showed us some key scenes of holy horror that reminded us just how scary evil in a pure place can be. It was chilling and was giving off some serious Exorcist vibes.
The Nun is the first of the three to open, hitting theaters Sept. 7, 2018. The Curse of La Lloroa is slated for an April 19, 2019 release and It: Chapter Two opens Sept. 6, 2019.
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