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MOVIE:
The Conjuring
OUR RATING:
4/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
The movie is based on a case of real paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, a demonologist and a medium, who investigated the Perron family's haunted house in the 1970s. According to the husband and wife, this is one of the most malevolent cases they ever experienced, as the haunting became more and more brutal to the house's inhabitants.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
There is something about a scary movie that is supposedly based on a true story that makes your skin crawl, and this one makes your skin walk right out the cinema.
Without using too much over the top CGI horror that many movies from this genre depend on, The Conjuring uses subtle creaks and claps to turn the most steeled movie goer into a whimpering mess.
Typical horror movies almost always cast horrible actors that make you so happy when they eventually die, but director James Wan (who also directed Insidious and the first Saw movie) managed a group of brilliant actors that turned horror clichés on their severed heads.
Patrick Wilson seems to have gotten a taste for horror movies and Wan since Insidious. It is so refreshing to see an actor bring emotional intensity to a scare-the-hell-out-of-you plot, and his co-star and onscreen medium wife, played by Academy Award nominee Vera Farmiga, plays brilliantly into their complex relationship.
Who knew clapping hands could be so damn creepy? I can’t say the movie is devoid of you usual horror gimmicks, but they are done so subtly and in a fresh way that you don’t even realise that it’s been used countless times before. You will still be covering your eyes with fear.
Whether or not you believe that the events in The Conjuring really happened, Wan pulls you into a dark place full of whispers and demons that you will struggle to get out of.
This movie has brought new life, or death, to the genre and will hopefully steer horror to less mindless screams.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
