Modern Classic - “The Conjuring”

"There is something horrible happening in my house..." - Carolyn Perron

The best horror films are the ones that put the emphasis on tension and atmospheric foreboding, over guts and gore. The Shining and El Orfanato are far scarier than Evil Dead, Hostel and the Saw films, for example. The latter films, including titles such as The Hills Have Eyes, have 'scary moments' in them, but exist more to make you squirm in disgust, rather than chill you to your core. The distinction is, the "gross-out/torture porn" titles may indeed scare you, but the more tension focused films will scare the shit out of you!

The Conjuring is a mix of both a ghost story and the modern resurgence in exorcism, horror. Allegedly based on the true story of the Perron family, Carolyn, Roger and their five daughters, during the 1970's, it follows them as they move into a ridiculously haunted-looking-house, in rural, Midwest America. The film begins with a steady pace, subtly hinting that something about this new family home is completely wrong, but never revealing too much early on. Alarm bells should've began ringing for the family though, when their pet dog refuses to enter the new house. Director James Wan, who has stepped up several scare levels since directing Saw back in 2004, teases us during the films' exposition, with long takes of darkened hallways and moments of absolute silence.

Knowing that we're watching a horror film, we're prepared for the fact that something scary will soon take place. However, if you were entirely unaware of the fact you were watching a horror film and had stumbled into The Conjuring by mistake, the fear levels would instantly hit you, due to this steady, yet chilling execution.

After their first night in the house, Carolyn wakes up to a nasty bruise on her leg, which, having christened the home with her husband the night before, we initially put down to sex wounds. Later that day though, their youngest daughter stumbles across the family dog, laying dead in the back garden. Personally, this would have already sent my spider-senses tingling enough, for me to hunt down the estate agent for a beating. but the Perrons are non the wiser and enjoy discovering other nooks and crannies in their new, creepy home.

After a few nights in the house, more out of the ordinary occurrences take place. The family soon start smelling rotten odours in their bedrooms, one of the daughters experiences a very directed sleep walking pattern, and another of the daughters encounters tugging on her body during her sleep. All the while Carolyn continues to collect violent bruises, which are medically diagnosed as being part of an iron deficiency. It's not until Carolyn encounters a presence during the scene stealing 'clapping game', and a harmful spirit attacks one of her daughters, that she seeks paranormal investigators/ghost hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Here the film shifts and becomes a ghost hunting tale. Due to the fact that the Warrens are professionals, with Lorraine having a sixth sense in being able to sense both bad and good auras, the fear factor lessens to a degree and we're taken on a journey of how to combat the problem, as opposed to having previously experienced it with the family. What we soon learn, unsurprisingly, is that the house is haunted, therefore requires an exorcism. Furthermore, not only is it haunted, but it's possessed by a three hundred year old, baby killing bitch, excuse me, witch, with a malevolent agenda.

The story, as discovered by the Warrens, is that the witch was once part of the Salem trials and having killed her baby to show her allegiance to the devil, then cursed her 200 acre land, so that anyone who claimed it, would experience her uniquely maternal wrath and be forced to commit equally as horrific acts on their own children.

The Warrens are excellently depicted by well known actors Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Hard Candy, Insidious) and Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Departed, Orphan) who are established actors but not quite A-star, which allows for the levels of threat to occur, without a suspension of disbelief. If I had any criticisms, it would be that the trailers for the film revealed some of the biggest scares and as a result they don't resonate in the same way on screen. Also, I would say, there were opportunities to take the frights even further to establish it as one of the all time scariest films, but I feel this opportunity was missed. Overall, The Conjuring is fun because it's genuinely creepy, in the kind of way that makes you laugh afterwards, at how twisted people's mind's can be. I'd recommend seeing it in the cinema, as the communal aspect of watching horror films adds to the overall enjoyment. Once you've seen it, it will definitely be a while before you choose to play hide and seek with any children....Clap, Clap.

See the trailer here: The Conjuring Trailer