The Conjuring Review: True story, my ass!

Dir. James Wan
112 Minutes
Rated R
Watch Trailer

The Internet has spoken: The Conjuring is apparently one of the freshest horror films of recent memory.  With a solid 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and a better-than-predicted $41 million box office take, it was clear audiences were eating it up. As a self-appointed geek of the genre I could not wait for this film.  I'm a big fan of both Saw and Insidious, and I was looking forward to what all the fuss was about.  Based on the overwhelmingly positive reactions, I was hoping James Wan would hit it out of the park again, showing us what a true original horror picture can be.  Sadly, The Conjuring, besides some unexplored hints and ideas of a better movie, features more cliches and overused scares it will make you want to bash your head against the wall repeatedly.  Granted, Wan's technical ability behind the camera is impressive, and the cast gives it their all, but I was simply bored and felt I had seen all of it before.


A killer doll.  Check.  Ghost that appears behind you in a mirror.  Check.  Going into the basement without a friggen light on.  Check.  I'm so tired of hearing critics say how great this film is when it offers nothing new to the table.  The story had so much potential - squandered by these exercises in drawn-out scare sequences that mean absolutely nothing.  The plot follows real life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), best known for working on the actual Amityville Horror house.  They tour colleges and spread the word of their findings; on one such occasion their assistance is sought after by the Perron family (led by Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston), who have a bunch of ghosts pulling their legs, slamming their doors, and stopping their clocks (which is so annoying when there's rush hour traffic in the morning).  Yada, yada, yada and they get involved, blah, blah, blah, then it turns into an exorcism movie.  If the "based on a true story" aspect was actually taken seriously, this could have been a fascinating look at this unique relationship between a husband and wife ghost-hunting team.  But in context of the film, it barely scratches the surface of who these people are.  Every character in the film is there simply to cater to delivering cheap "haunted house" scares.

I don't mind the people saying they enjoyed the film or were creeped out by it - Wan clearly has an affinity for horror and can make a movie as mediocre as The Conjuring and infuse a lot of style into it (the camera work around the house is pretty cool stuff).  If a horror movie scares you for whatever reason, good for you, it did its job.  But for me, it was the same rehashed ideas we've seen a thousand times before, without any original take or spin on it (unlike some other recent American ghost stories like Paranormal Activity, The Ring, even Mama from earlier this year).  There were no twists and turns like Saw, and there was little in the way of subtlety or creative monster design as in Insidious.  The only thing saving the film is the 70's "throwback" camerawork and the acting.  The title alone is generic: The Conjuring.  Just an assembly line title like "The Possession" or "Sinister"; something that describes the most basic thing about the film without any meaning behind it.  And just like Sinister, this is another weirdly overrated supernatural thriller.

Rating: C


Bonus - Related Internet Video

So what are you supposed to do when you encounter a ghost?  Let's take it to the real Ed and Lorraine Warren to find out.