Review: The Conjuring (2013)

Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor
Director: James Wan
Country: USA
Genre: Horror | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: The Conjuring opens in wide release this Friday, July 19th.

From the giddy, nauseating, inventively sadistic highs of the trend setting Saw (2004) to the promising but severely problematic chiller Insidious (2010), director James Wan has been working hard to scare the pants off as many audience members as possible. His only venture outside of the genre to date, Death Sentence (2007), barely found an audience, but his upcoming Fast and Furious 7 should give him the opportunity to spread his directorial wings, and not a moment too soon because his horror work is beginning to repeat itself.

If it is the first ghost movie for you, it may be terrifying, for anyone else, it is a carbon copy of scares with enough stylish flourishes to occasionally force your hands over your eyes.

Wan is up to his old boo! tactics with The Conjuring (Insidious Part 2 is just around the corner - more ghostly goings on), a film that has more in common with his disappointing Insidious than his innovative Saw. Recycling the tried and true haunted house clichés, ghostly apparitions, creaky doors and objects that move seemingly by themselves, The Conjuring is awfully familiar and yet still surprisingly effective. If it is the first ghost movie for you, it may be terrifying, for anyone else, it is a carbon copy of scares with enough stylish flourishes to occasionally force your hands over your eyes.

The Conjuring is based on the true story of paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren’s (Vera Farmiga) most terrifying case (even more so than their famous Amityville case which spawned a bestselling book and box office hit film in 1979 and 2005 remake) in which they help rid a peaceful looking old house of its troublesome spirit inhabitants. Carolyn (Lily Taylor) and Roger Perron (Ron Livingston) and their five daughters are the haunted family that seek the Warren’s help.

Working exclusively with the clichés of the genre (boarded up basement, ghostly whispers etc), Wan still manages to build tension. He likes to show us the things that go bump in the night but not before long, drawn out strolls down a darkened hallway or venturing into an off-limits basement. His over reliance on creaky doors to evoke fear is a cop out. Why this family don’t go around with an oil can to take the irritating nails on a chalkboard noise down a notch is the biggest mystery. It is a missed opportunity to give the genre a shot in the arm that it requires. We have been saturated with Paranormal Activity, something a little outside the box (like Saw) could have made a creepy experience traumatising.

A major step towards creating the chilling atmosphere is the realism and attention to period detail - the 1970s design is the most detailed and true to life that we have seen in recent horror films.

A major step towards creating the chilling atmosphere is the realism and attention to period detail - the 1970s design is the most detailed and true to life that we have seen in recent horror films. Films claiming to be set in the 1970s (2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and 2005’s The Amityville Horror) do little in the way of replicating the look of the era, keeping their actors costumed in the most boringly neutral fashion so as to not alienate the teenage target audience with weird looking clothes. The Conjuring gives that target audience some credit by staying true to the style (even if Farmiga’s oversized ruffled collar does get a bit of a giggle).

Bucking the trend with an attentive B-plot that goes into the troubled lives of the paranormal hunters (we never really knew where clairvoyant Tangina Barrons came from in Poltergeist), The Conjuring still only offers surface level character development with the family. They are an appealing and likeable bunch that are driven by their unconditional love for each other, which is a sweet sentiment, but only the bare minimum required to evoke sympathy is developed. A family turning over a new leaf and starting fresh in a big new home immediately gets us on their side but it is familiar, unimaginative and is the set up for The Amityville Horror all over again. Something a little deeper would not have gone astray and would have given seasoned performers Taylor and Livingston something to sink their teeth into.

While it will be a nice change of pace for Wan to swap creaky doors with revving engines for a while, it would be good to see this director, who clearly has a passion for horror, eventually return with a more imaginative script and fresher ideas - unless he has those up his sleeve for Insidious Part 2. We’ll see, through the cracks between our fingers.

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Julian Wright

Staff Film Critic

I am a film reviewer and blogger from Perth, Western Australia. I fell in love with cinema at an early age when I saw my first horror film and realised the impact movies can have on a person. For me it was terrifying me into an almost catatonic state. Later it was how much they made me laugh and cry. I'll watch pretty much anything and love indulging in a good film discussion.

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