The Conjuring

Note* this review will contain spoilers for The Conjuring, The Exorcist and Insidious.

  For the record, I haven’t read anything about the original story that The Conjuring is based on.I have some general ideas, but research on my part is lacking. Just as a disclaimer this is only going to be about the film. To know what you're getting into, The Conjuring is basically a stir fry of haunted house, demon/exorcist, and creepy doll films.

  The Conjuring has an interesting opening, the start of the film begins not with the story of the main family who is haunted, but with a separate case the couple who helps them is working on. It’s the Annabelle doll, an infamous doll that in the film is like Slappy from Night of the Living Dummy possessed by a demonic entity. Apparently in real life its a simple Raggedly Ann doll forged by Mephistopheles.  

not to be fucked with

The couple are demonologists, ghost hunters and part time lecturers Lorraine and Ed Warren,  played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. They apparently teach a class in supernatural and paranormal research. On the side they assist in exorcisms, diagnose hauntings, and collect things that belong in a museum (a room full of haunted shit).

kind of like Sam and Dean but better acting

The beginning of the film I feel is solid. It’s unconventional at times, but classic. The setting is dipped in 1970s America, and if you’re familiar with horror, you’ll know for some reason tons of scary shit went down in the 70s. The opening title card is in the frightening book-like font that is reminiscent of The Exorcist. Immediately you realize they’re going old school. They’re not even afraid to kill a dog.

I'm sorry Sadie

 I can safely say you’d be hard pressed to find recent performances in horror that top Vera Farmiga and Lili Taylor’s in this film. Lili Taylor is Carolyn Perron, mom of 5 (?) daughters.[I’m not listing the daughters because I don’t know who was who.] Her husband is Ron Livingston as Roger Perron. The large family moves into a creepy old house, and of course things start to not seem right. To begin, their dog doesn’t want to come in. He actually refuses. Then the family discovers a complete basement full of stuff boarded up. Before they know it Carolyn has random bruisings. Kids start talking to imaginary people, rancid smells, clock stopping and its freezing. The dog dies. 

  Cut back to the Warren family. Ed is talking to a reporter in their room full of evil objects. They allude to horror that Lorraine saw during an exorcism. Apparently Lorraine looked into the abyss, and the abyss looked back. She is a psychic who made direct eye contact with a possessed man and suffered trauma from what she saw. Unlike much of the film it relies on imagination to disturb you, making it one of my favorite parts of the film. The unknown of what she saw haunted me more that ghoulish figure you see later in the film. 

 

 though they could've spliced in some faces or something

  In the beginning these entities are not shown, something that is very effective for horror. A mysterious figure pulling on one of the daughter's legs, bruising, weird smells, moving objects, etc. All these are very eerie to think of, and it puts you in the place of the characters. The pacing of the first half of The Conjuring works because of this. While things that are occurring are scary, the suspense is what kills you. The scene in the girl's shared bedroom is unique and fantastic. It also makes the 'jumpscares' feel less like cheating. To be honest, this is what bothered me about Insidious, extended time of seeing the red-faced demon made me less afraid of it. Once you see glimpses of the entity haunting the family you start to realize...its not that scary.

... a jumping Halloween decoration

After a violent night of disturbances, involving Carolyn being trapped in the basement of horrors, the family decided to seek the help of the Warrens. The Warrens go through the house and immediately recognize the signs of demonic presences. Specifically, Lorraine sees them. The shadowy figures shown behind the family are genius. Probably because if you look up any personal accounts of paranormal, people report feeling or seeing something like this.  Right when shit starts to get real, and I'm completely excited, there is suddenly some phantom feet behind Ed.

Patrick Wilson never turns around in time

So the Warrens set up an investigative team to gather enough evidence to send to the Vatican for an exorcism. If you've seen Insidious it will also feel familiar. My main issue with this is that it sometimes feels like wasted time, especially now that we have endless ghost hunting and paranormal shows. There's some comic relief, a good scare [involving Carolyn trying to sleep] or two, but here is where I start to feel the film dissolve for me. 

From this point on, they explain the most evil being in the house is a witch named Bathsheba who murdered her newborn child and then killed herself. There were generations of other horrible deaths and suicides following this. I have to admit, witches don't really work as a villain for me in films. First, they are referring specifically to a witch during the Salem Witch trials, something that isn't generally linked to witchcraft as much as innocent people wrongfully executed. Truthfully, the idea of the entity being human isn't as scary. Perhaps repeated viewings of The Craft made witches seem tame.

Second, when the Warrens decided to help out, apparently Bathsheba decided to give them her own warning, by starts attacking Lorraine and Ed's daughter. By the way, if you're watching this film for the Anabelle doll, you might be disappointed. Past the opening of the movie, you get one scene of it looking fucking creepy and turning its head to torment the daughter. Its sad how little screentime it got. 

Third, the exorcism plot is possibly the weakest aspect of this film for me. Carolyn takes a few of her daughters back to the house where she tries to murder them. Carolyn's possession is frightening at times, and I give credit to Lili Taylor for that. When you see her trying to murder her children its scary. Seeing her covered and screaming is unsettling. 

What bothers me is when you have a chair upside down on the ceiling, or when you see Bathsheba's face, or in general how quick the exorcism was. In films like The Exorcist, which might be one of the few possession films where these things work, one of the painful things about watching it is how hard it is to exorcise the demon. The whole film is a struggle, and at the heart is very human suffering that plagues the characters. Here, the exorcism is painful, but it almost feels like a throwaway thing just to muster up fear. Right after it's finished the film tries to have a tidy, family existence. The Conjuring concludes from this point, the humans cured, and all seems at rest.

So what the fuck about the other ghosts? The kid, the maid, etc? I'm going to assume they're all at peace, but that feels like a letdown. There's a problem because the first half of the film felt like a well made throwback. The second half fell into very modern versions of possession, more in the style of The Rite than Poltergeist or Amityville. The ending feels incomplete somehow. Other films of this type have succeeded in the happy ending, or at least a partially happy ending. Why did this feel so rushed? I think I might have even appreciated a twist more because there would be some satisfaction at least. There was a lack of sacrifice, trauma or any type of aftermath. 

I also can't think immediately of a key horrifying scene. The Exorcist has a few, peasoup, crucifix, head turning and spider walk. The Shining has those goddamn twins. Even Insidious has the famous demon appearing. 

I wanted to love this film, because I honestly enjoyed the first half. It's definitely a step in the correct direction, but I couldn't name it a horror favorite. There are plenty of well made points of acting, direction and creativity. Enough that this film stands out among recent horror, but I feel there's still room for improvement.

 On a side note, I recommend checking out The Addiction if you enjoyed Lili Taylor's performance here.