ALSO SHOWING

THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA (15) ★★ ★★★

MEXICAN folklore provides hoary inspiration for a dusty sixth chapter in The Conjuring horror franchise.

In 1973 Los Angeles, social worker Anna Tate-Garcia (Linda Cardellini, pictured) visits the home of Patricia Alvarez (Patricia Velasquez), whose children have failed to appear at school.

Anna enters the apartment and is attacked by Patricia, who has locked her boys Carlos (Oliver Alexander) and Tomas (Aiden Lewandowski) in a cupboard adorned with symbols of protection. “Close the door, she’ll hurt us,” plead the tykes.

Anna promises Carlos and Tomas they will be safe and relocates them to a charity shelter. That night, Detective Cooper (Sean Patrick Thomas) telephones with grim news: the Alvarez boys have been drowned. At first, police suspect Patricia but the grief-stricken mother publicly blames Anna.

The social worker’s actions exposed the boys to a diabolical spectre called La Llorona (Marisol Ramirez), who will now turn her murderous gaze on Anna’s cherubic offspring.

The Curse Of La Llorona splutters from one predictable jolt to the next. Hardened horror fans won’t flinch or break sweat.

A DOG’S JOURNEY (PG) ★★★ ★★

IN 2017, A Dog’s Purpose, based on the novel by W Bruce Cameron, chronicled the multiple lives of a dog called Bailey (voiced by Josh Gad), who is magically reborn as different breeds and finds his way back to doting owner Ethan Montgomery (Dennis Quaid).

Scripted by a litter of four writers, A Dog’s Journey gnaws on a lot of the same bones as its well-trained predecessor, dividing Bailey’s allegiances this time between Ethan and his granddaughter, Calista Jane, who is being raised by a neglectful mother.

Key members of the cast reprise their roles and Gad continues to lap up gentle laughs as the sardonic inner stream of consciousness of the four-legged hero. Kathryn Prescott as CJ bears the heaviest emotional burden as her character overcomes the deep scars left by a mother’s so-called love.

A Dog’s Journey is too gushingly sentimental and structurally similar to the original film.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (12A) ★★★★ ★

WELL-CRAFTED blockbuster that nods reverentially to the past 11 years of Marvel Comics mayhem.

Thanos ( Josh Brolin) has devastated the universe with one snap of his fingers, sounding a death knell for billions on Earth. Before his demise, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) issued a distress call to Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). Her formidable abilities may tip the balance of power in favour of grief-stricken survivors including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), Captain America (Chris Evans, pictured), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye ( Jeremy Renner) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) as they try to bring back their fallen comrades.