The Conjuring

I envy James Wan.  He is all of 36 years of age – maybe a few months older.  And he already has given the world quite a few successful movies.  To mention one, there is Saw which was a commercial success but I didn’t quite like it more because of the gore and not because it was badly made.  He has already signed up for Fast & Furious 7 and after watching The Conjuring, I think he will improve on the franchise (at lease I hope so).

The Conjuring is a true story.  It is based on the life of Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and his wife Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) who are ghost hunters (for lack of any other word).  They are not part of the church but work very closely with the church to rid the world of demonic influences.  More importantly, they work with science to help people understand that a lot of their fears are unfounded.

Neither Ed nor Lorraine were even remotely prepared for what the Perrons had in store for them.  Carolyn (Lili) and Roger Perron (Ron Livingston) move into a dilapidated farm house in the outskirts of Rhode Island.  They have 5 daughters aged 14 to 4.  Within a few days they start feeling strange and scary things happening.  Offensive smells, strange noises and of course the kids seeing the dead.

While Ed is quite tempted to brush away Lili when she approaches him first, he comes over after some persuasion.  Ed didn’t want to come over because their previous experience had left Lorraine totally drained almost dead.  When both Lorraine and Ed reach the Perron’s home, they realize that they are now in for the most challenging assignment in their lives.

The Conjuring is super scary in parts.  The story is definitely eerie to say the least.  It makes you cringe in your pants and hold onto the arms of your chair more often than quite a few fake attempts at horror in the recent past.  That the story is true only makes it even more eerie.  I have always believed that horror is about getting the overall experience right and nothing to do with Evil Dead type characters. Wan gets that right.

Vera Farmiga is the stand out performer and is ably supported by the rest of the cast.  Music and editing is more integral to a horror flick than any other genre probably.  The former is by Joseph Bishara who is no stranger to the world of horror and has done a great job here.  Ditto for Kirk M Morri with respect to editing.

Could The Conjuring have been more scary than the final product? Maybe yes.  I am not the best benchmark for horror because I get scared quite easily.  But from what I hear, most people have loved the movie for the horror.  I think it was well made movie with a great storyline and am going with 7 on 10.  Its still running in theatres. Watch it.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3819874585/?ref_=tt_ov_vi