REVIEW: The Conjuring

PLOT: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.

REVIEW: There are a lot of things about The Conjuring that line up perfectly for me. One being that now one of the biggest horror directors of today, James Wan, was directing the film. On top of that you have Vera Farmiga who is one of my favorite actresses, partly because she's great and the other because she's pretty pretty. This looked like a big budget scare that was going to get under your skin and really scare you without all of the jumpy noises and whatnot for cheap screams. Surprisingly to me after seeing the trailer, the film debuted with very high reviews and ratings and was being hailed as one of the best horror films in recent years. Anytime a horror movie gets hyped, you can almost guarantee that it's all hype and no different than any of the others you've seen. That's not me knocking horror films, because I'm a big fan, but usually the popular vote is not the quality vote, take Paranormal Activity for example. Similar to 2010's Insidious, also directed by Wan, and 2012's Sinister, Wan's new film conjures up the feeling that you're going to see something disturbingly unique and haunting without all of the "boom there's a loud noise to scare the teenagers" schtick. The trailer seemed to portray a film that would be deeply haunting, and grab root in your mind and just put you under the spell that Wan seemingly had with Insidious, which I loved. I came out of The Conjuring feeling a little deflated and disappointed, and I don't think that was the movie's fault. It's being hyped, plain and simple. If you hype yourself up too much and anticipate feeling like everyone else that seems to think this movie is amazing, and you go in and it's only great, you're going to be disappointed. That was my mistake, but remember everyone is scared of something different and often times it's the unknown that's scariest of all.

James Wan has been on the rise over the last few years and it all started for him in 2004 with his horror megahit Saw. Saw was one of the most original and profoundly disturbing movies I'd seen in my young years as a horror fan. Yeah, it was gory and most people are going to be bothered by that on the surface but underneath the hacksaws and severed limbs there was a pretty terrifying tale. I'll avoid spoilers, but Saw probably has one of the best twist endings you'll ever see in film today. If you see the end coming then you're a freaking genius, and it all goes to show what a quality written story in horror can do for the overall film, even if the rest is just grossouts and gore. It's not even that Saw is particularly scary, it's just unsettling and that's not all credit due to the blood and guts. In 2007, there was Dead Silence which was his next film after being an executive producer on several of the Saw films after the first. It was pretty much the new scary doll movie for a new generation, and while it wasn't the greatest thing I'd seen, it was still unnerving because of the story behind the dolls and the tale Wan was trying to tell. Then there was Death Sentence in the very same year with Kevin Bacon that was more of a thriller than a horror film, and proved that Wan could do more than just scary and still write a compelling story. Then comes 2010's Insidious, which to me was one of the most entertaining and simultaneously scary films I'd seen in years. It wasn't just another haunted house movie, as it was more than that with the villain creeping into dreams and Patrick Wilson, who also stars in The Conjuring, having to hunt his child down from evil. Again, Insidious stirred something inside of me that while it wasn't the jump scares that got me, but it was the concept of the stories and the excellent execution of making an extremely creepy villain with story and background to match. Wan had written the stories for Saw, Dead Silence, and Insidious, but not for The Conjuring.

I have to think that maybe that was the reason I wasn't as into The Conjuring as I would have been with something similar but written by James Wan. All of the Wan-esque things were present, the dolls, the noises, the faces, the creeps, all in his style. But something about the story was just so slow, and it never really seeped out of the movie and into my head. To scare me, the story needs to come out of the screen, and it needs to involve me somehow and not just make me jump because I'm a human being. With The Conjuring I felt like I was watching yet another haunted house movie, but at least this time it wasn't garbage and it was done right. That's my one positive about this film is that despite it being some of the same old, same old, it was at least very enjoyable to watch because it was made with care and it had a quality to it that only a few directors could achieve with this overused material. There has been a lot of ranting and raving though about performances, and the story, and the directing. I'm with the directing completely, and I'm with the performances for the most part, but the story just dragged on and on and you could see where the two stories would come to a head in an ultimate showdown at the end which was fairly underwhelming. It was no secret to me as a viewer, and it took forever to get there, which just isn't good. My other complaint is that 75% of the scares were in the trailer, and it's fine if you want to show a scare or two in the trailer to show off your horror flick but don't freaking put the whole point of the movie out for free. By the time the movie was over, there was only one or two things that I didn't know I was going to see that involved blood, demons or evil in some way. Everything was in the freaking trailer, and you just can't have that, especially with a horror film.

A lot of people are talking about Vera Farmiga's performance as Lorraine Warren, the wife of ghost hunting and demonologist duo, the Warrens. She really does turn in a great performance as a traumatized but intrigued woman who wants nothing more than to help those suffering from possession or similar woes because it's her specialty and some could say God-given gift to do so. The other Warren, Ed, was played by Patrick Wilson who seems to have found a good niche for his acting in the horror department, because he works equally as well. Her character though is really where most of the interesting story lies, but despite the movie being about the Warrens they really aren't on the screen as often as you'd think. Which is funny because in the trailer they really don't even show the family that you're following around for the entire movie, it seems as if they're the main characters. Hell, even every description of the movie talks about the Warrens but no mention of the Perrons, played by Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor, who really serve as the film's main characters. I like Livingston, but I just couldn't buy him as the dad in this film and it was really hard for me to like Lili Taylor in her role as well. Part of me thinks it was just because I wanted to see more of the Warren storyline, and the other part of me thinks it's just because Ron Livingston was in Office Space years ago.

There was good stuff about this movie though. It has a classic feel to it, and despite it being yet another haunting movie, Wan has perfected the craft and seemingly figured it out for himself, as I'm sure others will try to imitate the success of The Conjuring. If you make a movie on the end of a trend, and it's good, then you're obviously doing something right and that is what speaks volumes to me about this film, and Wan's ability as a director. There were some good scary parts that weren't in the trailer, and I'm not even going to breathe a slight mention of them as to not ruin them for you because they are seemingly hard to come by. The obvious clapping hands and ghost on the armoire come when you expect them, and even though the demon possessing the house is scary looking, it's not creepy enough to scare the crap out of you on its own. There are a lot of jump scares in the movie, but there are also a lot of well placed pieces on the set that trick the eye into thinking you see something in the background when you don't. I don't know if it was on purpose, or if I was that observant, but I'd like to think that Wan is a fairly intelligent enough director to try something like that. The best part about the movie was definitely the first 30 minutes, as it wound the story up with the dolls and possessed artifacts but then eventually wound down very slowly to its end. The intro credits were insanely awesome and classic horror looking, with the yellow type font and scrolling words to explain our story before jumping right into it. And the big yellow font The Conjuring rolling across the screen before the movie starts just brought back an old classic horror movie feel to me. It was a nice feeling, but unfortunately the movie didn't live up to the hype that I'd heard for it, nor the hype in my head that I'd generated on my own. I think waiting for Blu-ray would have been a safer bet for me, but that's not to say I didn't think it was good. The Conjuring was good, but not great. It was creepy, but not terrifying. It was imaginative, but occassionally dull. It's all in the execution, but the material isn't enough to stand out by itself. I am looking forward to the future of Wan's career and let's hope after he's done with Fast & Furious 7 that he returns to horror fast, and furiously, to bring us something the likes of which we've never seen in the genre, again. The movie did quite well over the weekend beating out all competition, and for an R-rated horror film to beat out two PG-13 actioners R.I.P.D. and Red 2, as well as the family friendly Turbo over its initial weekend, it's a pretty big deal not only for horror, but the future of James Wan and horror together.

ACTING : ( 8 / 10 )

STORY : ( 7 / 10 )

EXECUTION : ( 7 / 10 )

POSTER : ( 6 / 10 )

AWESOME : ( 7 / 10 )

FINAL RATING : ( 7 / 10 )