NEW YORK (CNS) -- "The Curse of La Llorona" (Warner Bros.) constitutes an intense but problematic horror story. Director Michael Chaves' often-effective addition to the universe of the "Conjuring" franchise elicits its fair share of starts.

But, while the usual red-flag items are mostly absent, an attempt to blur the lines between Catholicism and superstition puts his film beyond the reach of all but the best-catechized teens.

As the opening sequence shows us, the titular wraith (Marisol Ramirez), a legendary figure in Mexican folklore, is a weeping woman who killed her own children back in the 17th century and who now preys on those of others. (She serves, so Tobias Iaconis and Mikki Daughtry's script later explains, as a distaff boogey man with which to threaten wayward muchachos and muchachas.)

Her first contemporary targets, as the movie's setting shifts to 1973 California, are Tomas (Aiden Lewandowski) and Carlos (Oliver Alexander), the two sons of Patricia Alvarez (Patricia Velasquez), a woman whose past abuse or neglect of her boys has brought her to the attention of child services.

So, when social worker Anna Tate-Garcia (Linda Cardellini) makes an official visit to Patricia's apartment and finds the kids locked in a closet, she ignores Patricia's insistence that they are there for protection as well as her desperate pleas not to endanger them by letting them out. Despite being lodged for the night in the ostensible safety of a Catholic Charities facility, however, the lads meet a grim fate in short order.

Unsurprisingly, Patricia blames their deaths on Anna. And it turns out to be no coincidence that La Llorona next turns her sights on widowed Anna's own two little ones, Chris (Roman Christou) and Samantha (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen).

Eventually convinced that they are being stalked by something otherworldly, Anna turns for help to Father Perez (Tony Amendola) a priest she first encounters while observing the preparations for the Alvarez children's funeral from a distance. Father Perez, familiar to fans of the 2014 "Conjuring" iteration "Annabelle," has some very questionable notions.

The preparations aforementioned involved a "smudging," a sort of spiritual fumigation practiced by some indigenous Americans. Watching it, Father Perez cheerfully announces that if the mourners believe in "that," they also will believe in "this" -- pan to the nearby facade of the church. Well, no, padre, not necessarily.

Asked to tackle Anna's problem, Father Perez points out that the church's bureaucracy would be slow to approve such aid. There is, however, a spiritual freelancer who might be of service in the person of ex-priest-turned-shaman Rafael Olvera (Raymond Cruz).

Olvera reluctantly agrees to try to rid Anna and the kids of their tormentor and proceeds to deploy a combination of Catholic and nonscriptural practices. It's a dicey blend based on the filmmakers' apparent desire to make the ever-tiresome distinction between being "spiritual" and being "religious."

Add Olvera's insistence that, although he has turned his back on the church, he remains faithful to God, and Catholic moviegoers are bound to be left feeling uneasy -- the messy, insubstantial nature of the loophole-ridden material notwithstanding. In fact, they may be driven to mutter, "Oh my, Llorona!"

The film contains occult themes, bloodless terror and a single crude term. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.

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CAPSULE REVIEW

"The Curse of La Llorona" (Warner Bros.)

Intense but problematic horror story in which a legendary Mexican wraith (Marisol Ramirez), a weeping woman who killed her own children and now preys on those of others, stalks a widowed mother (Linda Cardellini) and her two small kids (Roman Christou and Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) in 1973 California. Despite some obvious loopholes in its plot, director Michael Chaves' addition to the universe of the "Conjuring" franchise elicits its fair share of starts. But, while the usual red-flag items are mostly absent, an attempt to blur the lines between Catholicism and superstition, embodied in the figure of the ex-priest-turned-shaman (Raymond Cruz) to whom the troubled trio turns for help, puts this beyond the reach of all but the best-catechized teens. Occult themes, bloodless terror, a single crude term. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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CLASSIFICATION

"The Curse of La Llorona" (Warner Bros.) -- Catholic News Service classification, A-III -- adults. Motion Picture Association of America rating, R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.