The Conjuring Review

Justin and I saw The Conjuring on August 5, 2013!! I felt this was a great modern day horror movie harking back to 1970s horror while also instilling elements from recent horror movies such as Insidious. It utilizes the work of real life paranormal experts Ed & Lorraine Warren. I feel that going off events that have actual fact involved made this scarier. It particularly focuses on Ed & Lorraine's case of the Perron family in 1972. It also touches on a case about a doll named Annabelle. The doll created for the movie is much creepier than the real life doll which looks similar to Raggedy Ann, but the actual story was put into the movie quite accurately according to accounts. Also, the Child's Play series (Chucky) used this as inspiration for that horror series. This was placed in the movie at the beginning to give the audience a sense of what this couple does. Ed is a demonologist who tells us that an object can be a conduit for demons to get into our world. Lorraine is basically a medium that can see what happened to the spirits in order to understand the situation. The Perron family experienced a mix of Insidious and The Amityville Horror. If you look through the files and videos, you can watch the actual footage from their investigations. Andrea, the oldest of the five daughters, wrote a book detailing the accounts of what happened. It's scary reading some of the excerpts from it. I might get it to read the entire thing. James Wan is one of the best horror directors in quite some time, and creates compelling stories that keep you invested in the story. He is great at using music and slow build-up to create a great scare. With different stories that occurred at different times in this house, and the intricate way they are all connected is incredible to follow. The plot is intense and I think it's something that all fans of horror should see. I felt the acting performances were well done. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga did such an excellent job portrarying the Warrens. They had incredible chemistry. I feel the Farmigas have found their niche in the horror genre: Vera in Orphan, Bates Motel, and now The Conjuring, while her sister Taissa portrayed Violet in the first installment of American Horror Story and will also be a major part of American Horror Story: Coven. The Conjuring's plot for the chief antagonist ghost revolves around witchcraft. The make-up effects for her were excellent. I was genuinely terrified of her, and her main goal is even more sinister in nature than her actual appearance. It was great to see Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron, the matriarch of the family. She fit perfectly into this movie. Some may recognize her as Lisa from Six Feet Under. Perhaps the events of this movie is what happened to her in Season 3? I was really impressed with the acting of the daughters demonstrating genuine fear and definite mystique surrounding certain plot points. They definitely stole the scenes they were in, especially the younger actresses. I felt all five daughters gave great performances, but Foy's performance as Cindy and Joey King's performance as Christine were excellent. Some may recognized Foy as Renesme from Breaking Dawn and Joey King is the voice of China Doll in Oz: The Great & Powerful. The youngest daughter April, played by Kyla Deaver was great because of young children and their penchant for imaginary friends. The oldest daugthers, Andrea and Nancy, portrayed by Shanley Coswell and Hayley McFarland respectively were excellent because Andrea experiences the first true in your face scare of the movie (one of my favorite scenes also involving MacKenzie Foy) and Nancy experiences an excellent scene that will definitely make you jump that is made even better by the genuine fear displayed by Joey King. Overall, I give this movie a 4/5. It is an excellent modern day horror movie with great acting performances, genuine scares, and a great plot based on actual events. Here is the link where you can read about the actual events and watch videos from the real life Perron haunting, as well as phots of the real Andrea doll and what the Warrens look like: http://www.warrens.net/The-Warren-Files.html