Movie # 19 - The Conjuring

Oooooh spooky. An old Rhode Island farmhouse in the 1970s.  A loving family of husband, wife, five young daughters move in.  Creaky doors, stopped clocks and a lot of much, much worse nastiness breaks out.  Husband and wife university lecturers with a young daughter and a sideline in 'supernatural investigations' try to help.

From such a simple story, a gripping and at times terrifying movie has been made.  The mystery of who or what is terrorising this normal family is kept under wraps for approximately the first half of the movie, and I did not guess exactly who was the host until it was revealed.  Maybe because I was concentrating on "what the hell is that?" as each new episode unfolded.

The movie has a good mixture of genuinely spooky, hair-raising moments, and noisy, jump out of your seat slaps in the face.  It moves along at a cracking pace.  Director James Wan has good experience for this as the director of the original Saw and other scary/horror movies such as Insidious.

The acting is solid all round if not outstanding.  Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor are sympathetic as the parents just trying to rid their family of these scary events, while all the young actresses endure the horrific events very bravely and convincingly.  Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) is extremely handsome in his early 70s gear but a little too perfect as man of the cloth and demon fighter Ed Warren.  Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, Source Code) is probably the best as Lorraine Warren, who uses her gift of 'the sight' rather than religious conviction to help her husband fight off supernatural beings.  She is an extremely empathetic character and her natural warmth is much needed in what would otherwise be a fairly chilly movie.

The only downside I can think of looking back at it now is that there is a complete lack of scepticism on behalf of any character in the film.  Every person that becomes involved in the tale immediately believes and accepts what is going on and that the Warrens can fix it.  Which slightly reduces the effectiveness of the fact that the Warrens are indeed real people and the Rhode Island family was real and were helped by the Warrens.  You may know them from the more famous "Amityville" case which has been made into movies a few times now (you can look up their adventures on Wikipedia or the New England Centre for Psychic Research) .  However I'm sure that in real life, there would have been someone who initially thought this was "all in the mind" or that there was some rational explanation for the events that were occurring.  But despite all that, there seems to be a belief by the Warrens and many others that they have in fact captured enough evidence of demonic possessions to be convinced.  So be warned, this could be a real story!

So is it the scariest movie ever?  Close!  But not quite for me, I was more nervous and scared in last year's Sinister.  But a good scary movie should have you a bit nervous as you unlock the front door or settle in to go to sleep, and it certainly did that.  Thinking of some scenes days later still evokes a shiver.  Mission accomplished I'd say.