The Conjuring – review

The Conjuring is the latest horror film from director James Wan.  The film has a great score and an incredibly creepy atmosphere.  For the most part it is a fun and scary film with really decent acting. On the other hand, there are a lot of aspects to movie that will be familiar to anyone who is a fan of the supernatural horror genre.

The Conjuring takes place in 1971 when the Perron family buys an old farmhouse in Rhode Island.  Carolyn Perron, played by Lili Taylor, and Roger Perron, played by Ron Livingston, slowly find their home and family are being terrorized by several supernatural entities.  They request the aid of supernatural investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.  Together they attempt to rid their family of the horrors plaguing their lives.

The acting is pretty solid for this movie.  Everyone is believable in all their rolls and it makes the film pretty enjoyable. The music is very eerie and it works really well to the benefit of the movie and the overall chilling atmosphere.  The filmmakers took a great deal of care into making this look authentic since it takes place in the 70s to make it look like it was filmed with 70s film. 

If you are a nitpicker this movie does have some things that will make you think a little less of it.  For example, it seems to borrow a lot of concepts from other films. The Amityville Horror, The Entity, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, and even Evil Dead just to name a few that seem to have borrowed items of sorts.  Still, if you can look past this it is still an entertaining movie worth seeing.  It does a lot with very little in terms of visual and doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares, which makes it a pretty fun change of pace.

If you are a horror fan I recommend this film. If you look past the massive amounts of borrowed material it really is a good chiller.  If you are a not a horror fan you will likely be terrified by the ghastly images or the demonic doll.  It’s worth seeing as a matinee or rental if you are into a good ghost story.  If that is your thing you will not be disappointed.