Well I saw The Conjuring last night and I have to say that it is one of the best horror movies I have seen in a long time. It had that oppressive feel that you can only get from a well paced and truly scary movie. I left the theater with a nice uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and casting a wary eye toward the shadows expecting an orange-eyed crone to be looking back at me.
The movie is set in the 1971 with lots of bell bottoms, long sideburns, and ugly pant suits worn by the various characters. The movie is basically about a family with five daughters moving into an old house that they used all of their money to afford. In other words when things start to go wrong they have nowhere to turn. Of course things start to go wrong when the father played by Ron Livingston opens up a boarded up cellar. Of course this leads to various bumps in the night and unexplained bruises on the mom played by Lili Taylor.
As we go along things get worse and worse for the family. First one of the daughters has her leg yanked by an unseen force. They smell rotting meat and weird cold-spots as they try to live their every day lives. Then the youngest daughter starts sleepwalking and bangs her head lightly against a very old wardrobe. There is a nice circus-themed wind-up toy that has a mirror in it that when the music stops a ghost is sometimes seen. I loved the idea of ghosts in the mirror so I enjoyed this prop.
All of the creepiness builds up in a very nice way that I really enjoyed. Finally there is a scene where the family has had enough when all of their family photos are smashed and messed up. Then we have the reveal of the creature and it was very well done and scary. After that happens the family goes to the Warrens played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson to help them escape the ghosts and demons.
The Warrens set up various 70s ghost-busters sort of equipment and they monitor the house and the various ghosts that are bothering the family. These scenes could have felt like the movie Poltergeist but it felt nice and fresh to me. Then we have a nice thrill ride of the ghosts revealing themselves and people getting thrown around rooms and such. It all culminates with a nice set-piece demonic possession scene that could have felt stale but was actually quite creepy.
Wilson and Farmiga does a great job of breathing life into the Warrens and you actually cheer for them to beat the evil ghosts. The family never felt annoying and you wanted to see them succeed in freeing themselves of the ghosts and demons that plagued them.
In fact I would love to see Wilson and Farmiga in a remake of Amityville Horror directed by the same guy as this movie (James Wan.) He actually did the Saw movies which I didn't much like but also helmed Insidious which was very good. That movie wasn't as good as The Conjuring (except for one set piece scare in a window that was awesome) but I enjoyed it for what it was. In any case I'm looking forward to whatever supernatural thrillers James Wan will be doing going forward.
Finally, my only gripe is that I'm still not sure about the title. I have no idea what they were Conjuring and what it had to do with the family or the Warrens. When I first saw the title I thought it might have had something to do with magic or summoning circles and that kind of thing. Instead it was a nice creepy demonic possession tale with ghosts thrown in for taste. Maybe they could have called it Hell House or Bethsheba (the name of the evil demonic ghost) and it might have been a little better title in my mind. In any case I enjoyed it and say that if you are a horror movie fan like I am it hit the spot exactly.
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