Small spoilers for the CMU. (The Conjuring Movie Universe)
Since it was released in 2013, the first entry in The Conjuring universe proved that superheroes aren't the only ones who can have a connected series of movies.
In the years since then, we've seen how The Conjuring 2, Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, and The Nun all jigsaw into each other, providing some scary context that feeds back into the main Conjuring movies themselves.
That looks set to continue in an even-more, overlapping-Venn-Diagram'y kind of way with this June's Annabelle Comes Home (which might as well be the Avengers of the Conjuring movies), as well as The Crooked Man, who we first saw in The Conjuring 2, and is rumoured to be getting his own spin-off sometime in 2020.
Before all of that though, we're getting The Curse Of La Llorana, set in 1970s Los Angeles, and it too is a part of the CMU.
Although, unlike the other entries in the universe, which shows how some of the demons and ghosts and other nasty supernatural creatures have all crossed paths, La Llorana connection is much more tenuous, and leans closer to the hero's side of things.
If you don't want to know anymore, then just look at the trailer for the movie and then go read something else on JOE:
Clip via Warner Bros. Pictures
Still here? Okay, on we go...
In the movie, our hero is Anna (Linda Cardellini), a social worker and single mother of two young kids. When one of her cases ends with the arrival of a demonic woman who seems relentless in hunting down and killing her children, Anna turns to the church for help, specifically local priest Father Perez (Tony Amendola).
Those who have seen the first Annabelle movie will recognise Father Perez as the good guy priest in that movie too, but to really hammer the point home, La Llorona has a flashback of Perez carrying the evil doll from his church, as he tells Anna that there was once a time when he didn't believe in the supernatural, but that time is over now.
That is pretty much the extent of the links to the CMU, though.
Although, considering The Nun would pop up again in The Conjuring, who is to say that La Llorona won't reappear in Annabelle Comes Home, or the currently in pre-production The Conjuring 3, which is being directed by the guy behind The Curse Of La Llorona.
See? Links all over the place!
The Curse Of La Llorona is released in Irish cinemas from Friday 3 May.
