The Conjuring
Year: 2013
Director: James Wan
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor & Patrick Wilson
Runtime: 112 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 28/10/20
Director: James Wan
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor & Patrick Wilson
Runtime: 112 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 28/10/20
James Wan had one of the fastest and most unexpected starts to a career in the film industry I have ever seen. A guy who was an amateur filmmaker and still at film school who liked making gory horror films with his mates gets approached by Hollywood production studios for his short film ‘Saw’. After the unprecedented success of Saw, Wan was an overnight must have for studios wanting to direct low budget but mass marketable horror films. His next success on the same level as Saw came with 2010’s Insidious, which once that hit theatres, he was approached by Warner Bros. for another project titled The Warren Files. Excited by the opportunity of creating a film based on real people Wan accepted, and that is how The Conjuring came to be. I've specifically avoided watching The Conjuring until now because the reputation the series has garnered gave me the impression that I simply wouldn't enjoy the film. But considering it's been scientifically proven to be the third scariest horror film of all time (in a study conducted by BroadbandChoices) I bit the bullet and gave it a shot.
In 1971 the Perron family move into a new home in Rhode Island. The family consists of mother Carolyn, father Roger, (Lili Taylor & Ron Livingston) and their five daughters Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy, and April. Shortly after settling in the family begin to encounter unexplainable phenomena that leave all of them fearing for their lives, yet unable to leave their home due to having no money to support themselves after spending all of it on the house.
Carolyn reaches out to Ed & Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga), a couple of mediums who have gained fame for their numerous encounters with the paranormal and the aid they have given to families in need of their skills. They agree to come check out the house believing it to just be some squeaky floorboards, but what they discover is among the most sinister hauntings the pair have ever encountered.
I’ll give The Conjuring credit where it is due. Based off the reputation the series has I was expecting nothing but a jump scare laden haunted house attraction. But it doesn’t rely on all that many jump scares, and it does attempt to provide depth to the haunting at hand. Wan also manages to make the film visually interesting with some great camera work, excellent set and costume design, and some very impressive sound design. But that’s about where my praise for the film stops.
In 1971 the Perron family move into a new home in Rhode Island. The family consists of mother Carolyn, father Roger, (Lili Taylor & Ron Livingston) and their five daughters Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy, and April. Shortly after settling in the family begin to encounter unexplainable phenomena that leave all of them fearing for their lives, yet unable to leave their home due to having no money to support themselves after spending all of it on the house.
Carolyn reaches out to Ed & Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga), a couple of mediums who have gained fame for their numerous encounters with the paranormal and the aid they have given to families in need of their skills. They agree to come check out the house believing it to just be some squeaky floorboards, but what they discover is among the most sinister hauntings the pair have ever encountered.
I’ll give The Conjuring credit where it is due. Based off the reputation the series has I was expecting nothing but a jump scare laden haunted house attraction. But it doesn’t rely on all that many jump scares, and it does attempt to provide depth to the haunting at hand. Wan also manages to make the film visually interesting with some great camera work, excellent set and costume design, and some very impressive sound design. But that’s about where my praise for the film stops.
I had heard so many great things about The Conjuring and despite the series reputation for uninspired sequels in its cinematic universe with films like the Annabelle series and the more recent The Nun, I decided to give The Conjuring the benefit of the doubt because it did receive some quite high critical praise upon its release in 2013. I have to say I must have been watching a different film to many of those critics because what I watched had almost no effective scares, the performances across the board were below-par for the actors in comparison to other work I have seen them in, and despite trying to give the story some depth I feel like it was all for nought because by the end of the story I was still left wondering who half of the vengeful spirits in the film were and what relation they had to the main demonic presence that was inhabiting the house.
The best performance in the film was by Lili Taylor as she was the only character, I could truly invest myself into believing wasn’t reading from a script. Her scenes late into the film where her performance becomes more physical are also great and she really does act as a crutch for the rest of the film to put its entire weight onto as she desperately tries to stop it from all crumbling on top of her.
The most effective scares of the whole film are directly related to Vera Farmiga’s character Lorraine. Her character has an ability to see memories that are attached to objects or places, so much of the exposition scenes are done through her. But the visions she has are often have scares that the camera lingers on rather than relying on typical jump scare tactics (of which none were earned for the films other scares).
There’s almost nothing I liked about The Conjuring, and I honestly fail to see how it made it to third place on the ‘scariest films ever’ list. To me it is exemplary of almost everything I had heard about it, loaded with cheap jump scares that fail to illicit a reaction because they are so poorly designed, wooden performances, and a story that fails to justify its existence. It genuinely baffles me that this is considered either a good film or a scary film!
The best performance in the film was by Lili Taylor as she was the only character, I could truly invest myself into believing wasn’t reading from a script. Her scenes late into the film where her performance becomes more physical are also great and she really does act as a crutch for the rest of the film to put its entire weight onto as she desperately tries to stop it from all crumbling on top of her.
The most effective scares of the whole film are directly related to Vera Farmiga’s character Lorraine. Her character has an ability to see memories that are attached to objects or places, so much of the exposition scenes are done through her. But the visions she has are often have scares that the camera lingers on rather than relying on typical jump scare tactics (of which none were earned for the films other scares).
There’s almost nothing I liked about The Conjuring, and I honestly fail to see how it made it to third place on the ‘scariest films ever’ list. To me it is exemplary of almost everything I had heard about it, loaded with cheap jump scares that fail to illicit a reaction because they are so poorly designed, wooden performances, and a story that fails to justify its existence. It genuinely baffles me that this is considered either a good film or a scary film!