Movie Review: 'The Curse of La Patasola'

Some movies are just impossible to care about. They may have a scene or two that is pretty good or even a good idea or two in the storytelling and yet, they fail to engage your mind. The Curse of La Patasola is such a movie. Despite there being at least one legitimately good scene, the film from director A.J Jones never rises above mediocre to downright terrible. The low budget provides some excuses for the low rent nature but it can’t excuse the overall throwaway aspect of The Curse of La Patasola.

The Curse of La Patasola stars Najah Bradley as Naomi, one of half of a pair of couples sharing a camping getaway. Both couples are struggling though they haven’t been talking about their problems. For Naomi, her boyfriend, James (Patrick R Walker), is too passive and doesn’t challenge her in the way she longs for. As for the other couple, Sarah and Daniel, played by Gillie Jones and director A.J Jones, they’re struggling with finances. Daniel has spent several years trying to get a business off the ground while Sarah has supported them both.

We meet the two couples en-route to a campsite and while Daniel and Naomi are in the midst of an obnoxious argument. Daniel is criticizing feminism for making men look bad and Naomi is clapping back in ever angrier retorts while scolding James for trying to play peacemaker instead of supporting her. Sarah is caught in the middle trying to get Daniel to stop antagonizing the clearly angry Naomi. Along the way the group is stopped by a Police Officer who informs them that there has been an inordinate amount of incident reports regarding missing people recently and they should be careful.

Naturally, they ignore this advice and proceed to their camping. Once the tents are out and the fire is going, Naomi and Daniel’s bickering continues. As they tell ghost stories Naomi claims to have the scariest of stories. Naomi proceeds to tell the tale of a woman who was murdered for cheating on her husband. So great was the woman’s grief and sorrow that she turned into a supernatural being that punishes people who cheat on the people they supposedly love. Though she doesn’t want to say it, Naomi is antagonized into saying the legend’s name, La Patasola.

The best scene in The Curse of La Patasola is one where two women have an honest conversation about their lives while smoking a joint. Najah Bradley is the most interesting and charismatic actor in the cast and she carries much of this scene with her confidence and singular commitment. Gillie Jones holds up her end of the scene but it is Bradley who looks like a genuine movie star in The Curse of La Patasola. Much of what little I enjoyed about The Curse of La Patasola came from Bradley’s terrific performance.

Beyond Bradley however, there isn’t much of anything original about The Curse of La Patasola. The movie goes through the motions of your standard modern evil ghost/demon/monster story with distant cries from eerie voices, heavy fog, and silly jump scares. Director A.J Jones delivers a very pat, very standard take on this familiar genre. Released on the same weekend as The Legend of La Llorona, I can say that The Curse of La Patasola is the better of the two horror flicks based on Central American legends but that’s a pretty low bar.

The Curse of La Patasola is mercifully on the short side but that’s probably a function of their not being much to the story to begin with. The ghost or monster or whatever it is that does the killing in The Curse of La Patasola is deeply unimpressive with vague powers, vague motivations, and low rent effects to bring it to life. At the very least, I didn’t watch The Curse of La Patasola in a fit of derisive giggles as I did with The Legend of La Llorona but I can’t say I prefer boredom over a movie that made me laugh unintentionally. I only slightly prefer The Curse of La Patasola because Najah Bradley is really good. I look forward to seeing more of her hopefully.

The Curse of La Patasola opened in limited release on January 14th, 2022.