The Curse of La Llorona isn't actually a Conjuring Universe movie, says director

The Curse of La Llorona isn't actually a part of The Conjuring Universe despite its two Annabelle-related cameos, says director Michael Chaves. It only became known as the eighth installment in the hit horror franchise, apparently, because of a presenter's unfortunate misunderstanding at a film festival.

Based on Mexican folklore, the '70s-set film, which was released in 2019, centers on Anna (Linda Cardellini), a social worker who wrongly accuses a troubled mother of murdering her young children. With Patricia, the other woman, behind bars, Anna and her kids fall victim to a dark, malevolent force, causing Anna to realize that there was much more to Patricia's case than she realized.

In honor of The Conjuring's 10th anniversary earlier this week, Chaves sat down with James Wan and producer Peter Safran to reflect on the series so far. During the Entertainment Weekly interview, he claimed: "There's so much debate about it and I think I've played coy in the past. One of the reasons that it couldn't formally be a part of the Conjuring Universe is it didn't include one of the key producers, Peter Safran. The Conjuring is his baby, him and James, and they are still the two core producers on it."

In the movie, Anna gets so spooked that she seeks the help of Father Perez (Tony Amendola), a character introduced in 2014's Annabelle. During his scene, he refers to "an incident with a doll", before a flashback shows him carrying Annabelle, as his reason for not wanting to assist and palming her off to Raymond Cruz's priest Rafael Olvera.

"Peter still gave his permission to let [Annabelle] be in there. The funny thing is that it was supposed to be a secret, it was supposed to be this Easter Egg, and [when the film premiered at] SXSW, there was a slip-up," Chaves continued. "The presenter introduced the movie as the next entry in the Conjuring Universe. So that was a big kind of faux pas. It was a big mess-up, and that's the truth of how that all came together."

"You can't count it!" Safran chimed in. "It periodically gets lumped in because of Chaves and because of [James Wan's production company] Atomic Monster, but it is not officially part of the universe. By the way, I think Chaves did a great job on the movie, which is why we stole him for the Conjuring universe." (Chaves went on to direct The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Nun II, which releases on September 8).

For more, check out our ranking of all The Conjuring Universe movies or our list of the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.