Movie Review: ‘THE CONJURING’

Being a horror fan, I get to revel in the fact that people get scared at movies that seem pretty tame to me. That might sound kind of pompous but the last movie that made my heart skip a beat was The Blair Witch Project during the final scene. Before that, the film that occupied that spot was Exorcist III. Needless to say, it takes a lot to scare or send chills up my spine. I think I can probably count on both hands (and still have some fingers left over) of all the films that have done this. When word started getting around that James Wan’s The Conjuring got bumped to a summer release and the film was rated R because it was too scary, I didn’t believe it. It sounded like a hype train blatantly sounding its horn way before it saw me standing on the tracks. While I was hesitant to dodge, I did. I just didn’t want to believe that a new horror film would accomplish what it set out to do which was scare every filmgoer – horror fan or not – out of their seats.

Wan sets up the film a little shaky as it feels like a made for TV film with some decent actors. I may have felt this way more because of Vera Farmiga’s role on Bates Motel but the whole set up with the Warrens, played by Patrick Wilson and Farmiga, explaining to a college auditorium what they do and this new fangled parapsychology field is just felt like one of those made for TV films. Farmiga states their names and cut to a text explanation of who the Warrens were and what they did for the field. My eyes rolled as it felt forced. However, after the title card scrolled up, that is where the eye rolling stopped. Yes, a couple more college lecture scenes populate the film but they are surrounded by the frightening story of a family that moved into a house in the middle of nowhere and are being creeped out by random bumps in the night (ok, more than just bumps).

What James Wan does with the remaining 100 minutes is a real tribute to old-school haunted house horror. Yes, this film fits in the caliber of Robert Wise’s The Haunting. While Wan does have jump scares in the film, the horror is true and foreboding. More importantly,  it is genuine. Dread fills the screen as we dig deeper into the story and a lot of the horror in the film is seeing this family go through what cannot be explained. Keep in mind, this is set back in the 1970’s so the family doesn’t know what the hell they are dealing with. Just when you think you are dealing with a ghost story, you find out it is something worse.

Some of the more interesting scenes that didn’t involve scares were the devices and techniques used back in the 70’s to try and document the paranormal activity in the Perron house. I’m not sure how historically accurate it was but it was an interesting vintage approach to what has now become the well known hobby of ghost hunting.

Lili Taylor and Vera Farmiga are the anchors of the film. That’s not to say that the other actors, especially the kids, are not good but this is a film of motherhood and what happens when the unexplainable attacks. Safety is at risk and the womanly bond is what brings Lorraine Warren back from a semi-retirement to help the Perron family. Taylor gives 110% in this film allowing her physical and emotional self to be subject to whatever devilish things the creative team behind The Conjuring can think of.

James Wan has definitely crafted a fine horror film. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel nor on a whole is it a new horror classic. However, I have no problem in saying that it has some of those recent and genuine spine-tingling scenes I have seen in a horror film in a while. It also has the privilege of having a few demonic images/scenes that have haunted me since my viewing. No air conditioning needed in any theater you see this in, which you should do this weekend.