Movie Review: The Curse of La Patasola (2022)

Synopsis: Two couples go on a camping trip together and, while telling ghost stories by their campfire accidentally summon an Amazonian spirit that hunts down and punishes people who cheat on their partner.

Who's in it? The movie stars Najah Bradley, Patrick Walker, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Luciana Faulhaber, AJ Jones and Gillie Jones.

Review: A lot of times I will pick out a movie based solely on the length because I want to watch a film but might be too tired to concentrate for more than 90 minutes. That was the case with this horror movie, which I had in my library. While I wasn't expecting it to be anything overly great, the film completely missed the mark with me.

I think the best way I could describe this movie is it reminded me of a bad soap opera that attempted to mix in some horror movie elements. The dialog seemed both forced and a bit over the top with one of the characters, Daniel (Jones) seeming to go out of his way to be an ass with anti-feminist views that made me wonder if the movie was actually made in the 70s or 80s.

In fact, I think one of the things that made this movie terrible was none of the four campers was particularly likable. Basically, the couples mirrored each other. One had an asshole husband and a meek wife and the other had an "opinionated" girlfriend and meek (and very cowardly) boyfriend and neither relationship seemed like it would last even a week in the real world.

In comparison, had the couples seemed both compatible and in-love, then the film might have been a little more interesting, with the La Patasola (Faulhaber) having to work to get someone to cheat rather than make it way too easy for it (and way too ridiculous for the person watching the movie).

Another major flaw in this movie is the La Patasola itself. Ignoring the fact I'm still confused how an Amazonian spirit ended up in the United States, its motivations seemed somewhat skewed. The creature was only supposed to stalk those who cheated, which was technically just Daniel since Naomi (Bradley) broke up with her boyfriend (Walker) first and the other two didn't even come close to cheating. Yet all four were stalked for some reason. 

And maybe I just missed it but why does the spirit of a wronged woman turn into a troll-like creature? By the end, it was really beginning to feel like the filmmakers were just starting to make stuff up at the end, to fill the movie out.

Final Opinion: I actually kind of liked the premise of this movie and think it might have been decent had the couples been more likable and the La Patasola stuck to a set of rules that made sense (and didn't turn into a troll). In its current form, it's just not worth watching.

My Grade: F