Title: “The Curse of La Llorona”

Release date: In theaters April 19, 2019; on disc/streaming July 16, 2019

Starring: Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez, Marisol Ramirez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, Roman Christou, Tony Amendola, Irene King

Directed by: Michael Chavez

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Rated: R

What it’s about: The supernatural La Llorona haunts two women and their young children in 1970s Los Angeles before a disillusioned priest is brought in to drive the evil spirit away.

How I saw it: It would be easy to pan “The Curse of La Llorona,” a movie that topped the box-office charts this spring and earned more than $125 million on a reported $9 million budget. And critics have had little trouble panning it. A loosely connected entry in “The Conjuring” franchise, “The Curse of La Llorona” has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 30 percent, and it does not far much better with audiences (42 percent).

Its sins? It’s not terribly original. The script is not much to write home about. Many of the scares are telegraphed. And about that “Conjuring” connection: It seems tacked on as if to cash in on the franchise’s popularity despite the uneven quality of the series’ movies. The connection here is Father Perez (Tony Amendola), who made an appearance in “Annabelle,” the entry about a creepy doll that makes a brief appearance here. That’s not much of a connection.

But, like Maximus (Russell Crowe) in “Gladiator,” you should be asking, “Are you not entertained?” And that’s what “The Curse of La Llorona” does. It entertains. When it comes to low-budget supernatural horror thrillers, that alone should be enough.

“The Curse of La Llorona” is about a Latin America folk tale. As legend goes, La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) was abandoned by her husband and left to raise their two young sons in 17^th century Mexico. But out of grief and anger, she drowns her sons. She is condemned to wander for all eternity until she finds the bodies of her children.

In “The Curse of La Llorona,” she shows up in 1970s Los Angeles to haunt two women and their children. One is an unstable woman, Patricia (Patricia Velasquez), who has been accused of not being able to care for her two young sons. A case worker assigned to investigate her, Anna Garcia (Linda Cardellini), unwittingly exposes Patricia’s boys to La Llorona. And then the spirit comes after Anna’s children, a daughter and son. When Anna’s children sustain injuries they can’t explain (injuries caused by La Llorona), Anna, who is struggling to overcome the grief of her police officer husband having been killed in the line of duty, is in danger of losing her children.

Out of desperation, Anna seeks the aid of Rafael (Raymond Cruz), a man of faith (but not religion, as he notes) who has become disillusioned with a church that has distanced itself from him because of his unusual practices. It’s at this point that “The Curse of La Llorona” hits its stride. The pace picks up as soon as Rafael enters the story, and Cruz’s wonderfully dry sense of humor is perfect for a movie that had been building slowly toward the halfway mark. Cruz uses whatever he has at his disposal (though it is not clear to Anna and her children he knows what he is doing) to chase away La Llorona, and the action and scares are relentless as the movie builds toward its climax.

La Llorona (Marisol Ramirez) is a genuinely scary spirit, and first-time feature director Michael Chavez seems to know just when to bring her on screen. And it helps that Chavez leads us to believe La Llorona is going to show up a couple of times when she doesn’t. Chavez borrows heavily from horror genre staples, but what sets the film apart from lesser supernatural movies is some outstanding camera work with unusual perspectives. There’s a certain beauty in the movie’s dark settings that’s noticeable.

“The Curse of La Llorona” doesn’t advance the horror genre, and it does not make a statement about the current state of politics or society. But it is fun and provides a few tension-relieving laughs and plenty of screams, even when it’s obvious they are coming. Is that not entertainment?

My score: 82 out of 100

Should you see it? If you can forgive its shortcomings and not put too much thought into it, “The Curse of La Llorona” would make for a fun popcorn-and-a-movie night at home.