REVIEW - 'The Conjuring'

'The Conjuring' (R) ***1/2

Paranormal investigators Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) come to the assistance of the Perron family, who start experiencing spooky things happening around the house.

Now, it's hard to write a review for a horror movie.  Like any movie, it's subjective.  What I find to be creepy and scary other people may not find to be creepy or scary.  Prime example of that:  I don't think that "The Exorcist" is scary.  I even purposely watched that at night, with it being pitch black in my room.  But I was not scared at all.

With that aside, I found 'The Conjuring' to be very creepy.  From the opening scene featuring an investigation of a possibly possessed, broken, creepy, almost life size porcelain doll it sets in motion a feeling of dread and tension that for the most part never lets up.  With the creepy atmosphere, it earns the jump scares when things do start going bump in the night.  And that greatly helps a movie like this:  atmosphere.  Sure, a loud noise or a loud orchestra sting can make me jump, but that doesn't make for a creepy movie.  Atmosphere and mood does.  If a horror movie doesnt have those and just has loud noises, well, then it's trying too hard and it just isnt scary or even remotely creepy (EXAMPLE:  'Paranormal Activity 4', which is so bad that it retroactively makes the other 'Paranormal Activity' movies worse.  And I liked those other movies).

And along those lines, yes 'The Conjuring' does follow the usual cliches of any haunted house movie or any exorcism movie so in a sense in retrospect it is predictable.  But since the movie is so well made I was invested in the story and felt this feeling of tension and dread inside me I was able to overlook those cliches that might ruin the movie for some.

Cliches aside, it is refreshing to watch a horror movie that you are able to actually get invested in what is going on and care about the characters and not just wait impatiently for them to die a horribly gruesome death.  This is a simple haunted house/exorcism movie.  There is some disturbing imagery and gore, but it's not excessive.  There isnt any sex or nudity in this movie at all, which is another change of pace from other horror movies that just pile on the gratuitous sex and nudity for no reason whatsoever (Hence why the 'Friday The 13th' remake is practically a porn movie).  No sex, no nudity, no graphic violence, no excessive amounts of gore.  It's horror like how it used to be made.

Okay, enough rants on the horror genre.  What else is good about the movie?  The performances are all very strong, particularly Patrick Wilson (from 'Watchmen' and 'Insidious') and Vera Farmiga (from 'Up In The Air' and 'Orphan') as the husband and wife team of paranormal investigators.  Ron Livingston (from 'Office Space') also does well as Roger Perron, the father of the family being terrified by the many demons and spirits in the house.  There is an extremely minimal amount of CGI in the movie, relying mostly on practical effects.  And that adds more to the creepy atmosphere.

Any negatives I can think of?  The main one I can think of is early on in the movie it'll go back and forth between spooky things happening to the family or spooky things happening in other investigations to the Warrens giving a lecture concerning their investigations.  It does slow the movie down a little bit but that pretty much stops after the mother of the family Carolynn Perron (Lili Taylor, from the remake of 'The Haunting') attends one of these lectures and gets the Warrens to investigate.  But that's the only negative thing that comes to mind.

If you are able to look past the cliches, 'The Conjuring' is a well made, very creepy horror movie that is bolstered by strong performances and a consistently creepy atmosphere that for the most part never lets up.  And honestly is one of the better movies I've seen this year.