The sun is setting, the night is taking hold, and I stood in the heart of the jungle as the cries of La Llarona echoed in the distance. I remained calm though as this was merely a press junket for Warner Bros. upcoming The Curse of La Llorona. Yes, it was a jungle, but a manmade one on the Warner lot in Burbank. Yes, there were sounds, but they were piped in over a sound system cleverly hidden amongst the greenery. I was waiting my turn to chat with director Michael Chaves on this eagerly anticipated film that brings a legendary being from Latin culture to life.
It’s my turn and I enter a barn that seems vaguely familiar. Chaves is just finishing up his chat with another outlet but can’t seem to break away as he is an eager, friendly and wonderfully engaging guy. Soon enough I am introduced to the bright-eyed director and greeted with a very hearty handshake. We are ushered into another room and offered a quiet place to chat for 10 minutes about this new terror that he is set to unleash on the public this Friday.
HorrorBuzz: The PR rep just told me that this barn was the place where they filmed scene from Annabelle Creation.
Michael Chaves: Yeah, everything has been filmed here. They told me that the last scene in Aquaman, with the scientist, was filmed in this very spot. We actually shot a flashback of La Llorona in here where she comes across her cheating husband, but we cut that out of the film.
HB: What went through your head when you realized, “Hey, I’m doing La Llorona,” and what were the challenges you faced on this, your first feature film?
MC: Well, I came out of commercials and music videos and went into my first feature, the first thing I learned was endurance. With commercials, you have a kind of high-energy ‘sprint’ mentality and you can do that for a week on a feature but two weeks in I was exhausted. I remember I was like, (laughing) ‘oh my god I dunno if I am going to be able to finish this movie, is there a pick hitter director?’ Oh! Another thing was the whole crew got sick. Everyone got the flu. My kids got pneumonia. Of course, we were blaming it on La Llorona. The movie was shut down for two days. Walter, one of our executives was saying, “I’ve done 30 movies and I have never shut down a movie.” It was extremely rare. That was one of the biggest obstacles. I mean, this was a modestly priced film. We were running on a very tight schedule with limited time. Our saving grace was our phenomenal cast and team. Linda’s amazing in the movie, Raymond’s amazing in the movie, Patricia’s amazing in the movie, Marisol, who plays La Llorona, everyone was so good. We had an amazing team.
HB: Why was the film set on the 1970s?
MC: Oh interesting, yes I wanted the movie set in a pre-internet era. I wanted it set in a time where people would have to go ask questions about it instead of just googling an answer.
HB: Did you grow up with the legend of La Llorona?
MC: I grew up in Los Angeles and I grew up hearing it as a ghost story. I heard a lot of them, but there was something so dark and messed up about a mother drowning her own kids.
HB: It’s so taboo.
MC: It’s also something we can all connect with. We’ve all had mothers or had kids and as a creator of a scary movie you are trying to tap into that really deep, primal fear. As we grow, you lose that. You are never as scared of anything as you were when you were a kid.
HB: What are three of your favorite scary movies in no particular order?
MC: The Shining, The Conjuring, The Others, The Ring, A Nightmare on Elm Street, I guess that was five.
HB: So you were already a big fan of The Conjuring series.
MC: Oh yeah. What got James’ attention was the short film I did called The Maiden. You see, I had been wanting to do a really good haunted house movie for a long time. Then when The Conjuring came out I was like, ok, yeah, U can’t do better than that. There is no way I can top something that scary and awesome. So I scrapped that whole idea. After a while, I thought, ok what if there is a real estate agent who is trying to sell a house that is haunted?
HB: Very American Horror Story.
MC: I know, right?
HB: Do you think that The Curse of La Llorona has a chance of turning into a maze at Halloween time?
MC: Oh man, I hope so. I love that stuff. I think I love haunted houses more than I do the movies because they are even more palpable.
HB: Some in the Latino Horror community are leery of this movie, The Curse of La Llorona, thinking it is whitewashed or that it doesn’t represent their culture correctly. Why should they see this movie?
MC: I am very proud of the cast. We have an amazing Latino cast. We also made this movie with the utmost respect for the legend. Yes, we have Linda Cardellini in the lead as an outsider because we wanted someone who could ask all of those “outsider” questions, all those naive questions about this legend. If you were a Latino you absolutely grew up with this story, it is embedded into the cultural fabric. I can tell you the movie was made with a lot of love and respect for the legend.
When anyone feels very passionate about a story or legend it is difficult. I will tell you we held countless focus groups. Some saw this version of the film and thought it was totally accurate. Others felt it was totally off. People would argue about where the legend originated. It was very tricky to honor it and make the most definitive version. One of my favorite things that I took from these focus groups though was that people would say, “FINALLY! Finally, someone has made this story.”
I am very proud of the film and the entire cast. This is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation that has never had, you know, the big studio treatment. I am so proud to have made that and that there is a La Llorona film in the world.
With that our time in the spooky barn came to an end. Having seen the film I can attest to Chaves’ talent. He has a great eye for the clean look of The Conjuring universe and a true passion for the creation of an effective ghost story. It was also very clear that his intentions were to, above all, entertain and pay respect to such an iconic character who was getting her first feature film. I honestly cannot wait to see where Michael’s career takes him.
