The Conjuring is the dramatization of a little-known account from the 1970s case files of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson). Director James Wan (Saw and Insidious) pulls out all the stops in this very sophisticated supernatural horror film. The movie is laced with all the right amount of creaky doors, cobwebbed cellars, and toys you’d have to be just plain stupid to play with. The movie is fresh and wonderfully scary with its spiritual overtones and themes. It’s shockingly entertaining with fun old-school freak-outs. It’s smart, well acted, and visually effective and stunning. From start to finish, this is one of the best horror films of 2013.
The movie is about paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who come to the aid of the Perron family (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor), who are experiencing increasingly disturbing events in their Rhode Island farmhouse. They are forced to confront a powerful entity and try to save the family and themselves from the evil within.
The movie has many themes and elements from other films you have come to expect, but they use them here in brand new ways that you wouldn’t expect. The movie starts with us getting to know the Warren’s and what they do. They help people with supernatural issues who cannot help themselves. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who nail these rolls, play Ed and Lorraine wonderfully. They are both at their best here. You feel for their characters and what them to succeed. They need to save the Perron family and they won’t stop until they do.
Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor turn in two great performances as Roger and Cynthia Perron. They care for their five daughters and will not let anything happen to their family. Taylor plays the role of the protective mother so well. She has a few scenes where it’s just her and the darkness and it is amazingly scary. She handles everything that is thrown at her with great talent and believability. Her character is clearly someone who will fight for her family to her last breath.
The movie has some great scenes and set-ups that you see coming a mile away, but with slight of hand and old school film techniques you’d never expect. With very subtle camera uses and lighting effects, things just appear and disappear in the same frame. The simple use of a door or a window opening in this movie is enough to freak you out. Many times in the theater I gasp in shock and grab myself for comfort and security.
The movie taking place in the 1970s adds to the creepy factor of the flick. If it was made in a modern world, we have way too much technology being used, but here we’re relying on simple 35mm camera, UV lights, and old tape decks to help us detect the spirits that haunt the house. Many times sound is used as a way to bring our emotional level into overload. From a thump or bump against something in the house, you are never able to relax because at anytime the filmmakers are ready to scare you again.
The special effects in the movie were so good! They are all simple practical effects with some CGI. They never once take you out of the flick itself and you never think “oh that, looks fake”. The blood, make-up prosthetics and ghost effects work in perfect unison to make you jump out of your skin. One type of scare they use a few times is the grabbing of legs and pulling someone out of bed. Something so simple with just the actor kicking and maybe someone pulling, but here it’s done with such a way my feet may never, I mean never, be outside the sheets again!
This is a great flick. By the end of the movie I was physically exhausted because of the fear. Now yes, you maybe wondering if I’m just a big wuss. Yes! I like getting scared, its part of the fun of going to a horror flick. If you go in with an open mind and let yourself be taken in by the eeriness on the screen, you should have once hell of a time.