The Conjuring Review

Movie: The Conjuring
By: Maniac E
Date: September 5, 2013

Based on a true story

James Wan again comes to us with a paranormal story, the director of "Saw" and "Insidious" continues on his ghostly filled stories. But will this one be giving us more of a jump than Insidious? Let's find out.

Set on Rhode Island in a farm house typical of any horror released in the '70s. The Conjuring is based on real life paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren's most infamous case. In 1971 Roger and Carolyn Perron move in with their five daughters and begin to experience the usual: doors slam, the clocks stop at 3.07am, a funky smell of rotting meat follows them around the house and one of the girls finds a music box that she uses to see her 'new friend'. Reaching the end of their tether they seek out the Warrens, who come laden with night vision cameras, UV lights and a Bible, intent on destroying the sinister presence before it latches onto the family itself.

As with many new horror movies there is not a lot that really does anything new and I am afraid to say, so does this one. But I must say James Wan keeps the movie up in good pace unlike Insidious where up to the middle part of the movie the story was enjoyable but at the ending was pretty much a cluster fuck of too many incoherent things. With the Conjuring he keeps it entertaining enough to make you sit through the whole thing.

The Conjuring will feel and maybe even look like something you already did see before, there is a lot inspiration used from The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror. This atmosphere that it tries to create feels like almost a copy of those movies which in my opinion can be a good thing. Certainly if you look at the most new horror ghost stories this stands a bit above the rest. Wan tried to do his thing and make something out of it and it shows his skills as a director.

The sound design was pretty good and made sure you kept awake once a scare comes along. Great camera work is also shown in this movie and you can feel that the crew was on par with each other. The way they wanted to create the fear for the unknown is done in a nice way. Of course this is a typical mainstream horror movie and some of the scares just don't come as a surprise. And even this time around the acting was pretty decent to say the least. One other thing that really didn't help the movie was the fact of the amount of characters it tries to focus on. There are so many that the focus is about everyone and everything. But to leave it at a good remark: The Conjuring is doing enough good to make you enjoy it.

I will not call this a gem but I will call this a great display from James Wan. You can really see how he has grown as a director and shows how he would like to make an audience feel by not showing everything. This was where he did drop the ball for me with Insidious and I guess he has learned his lesson. The Conjuring has some great scenes in there and some that could make you jump even, but in the end the movie is just not completely scary enough and doesn't do enough new things to really make it a classic horror movie. But again this is a nice try and makes sure you will at least leave the theater with a good feeling.