The Movie Review Nobody Asked For: The Conjuring
If you've seen one scary haunted house ghost movie, you've seen em all. Right? Scary movies, as of late, have been... waning. Let's face it. "Insidious" was just downright goofy. Did I spy Darth Maul torturing some guy's reflection? The closest thing we've gotten was "A Haunting in Connecticut" and even that one pulled its punches. Now I saw "Mama" twice in theaters but that was more artsy and wasn't really trying for the massive scares that this genre has been lacking as a whole. Not since the old classics like "Poltergeist", "The Shining" and "The Exorcist" have ghost movies been truly terrifying. How do you fix a problem? Add realism.
I don't know how many of you are huge dorks like me, but when something interests me, I dig into it. I do personal research on the subject until I know as much as I can about it. I first learned of the Warrens through a series of documentaries on History or one of those channels about hauntings and paranormal investigators. Ed and Lorraine Warren are an actual married couple from New England who have been investigating paranormal cases all around the country since the 50's. They were the "original ghost hunters" They pioneered a lot of the techniques and tricks that modern investigators use today when trying to find the supernatural and tell it apart from creaky old houses that make noises. Just through the nature of their work, they have collected stories upon stories about everything from leaky water pipes to full on demonic possessions. They filled a warehouse with artifacts that were said to be haunted or inherently evil or used in satanic rituals. They have a museum in Connecticut of some of their most infamous artifacts. And many of their biggest cases have already been told about in shows and movies. The Amityville Horror? Yeah that was them! So that is where this whole movie came from. It is, in essence, a dramatization of one of their most terrifying cases. The beginning of the film features a recap of one of my favorites of their stories about a possessed evil doll called Anabelle. In the film, it is depicted as an ugly, decrepit looking china-faced doll. In reality, Anabelle was a simple Raggedy Anne doll, which to me, would be infinitely more horrifying!
So enough about background. Let's talk about the film as its own entity. This film takes place in the 70's and the decor and details are all correct but the story is so timeless that it wasn't until one of the characters said "groovy" about two thirds of the way in that I realized how spot on it was. So naturally, you're already transported into the middle of this house. The movie plays off all the old horror movie tropes. There is a dog that senses the spirits, clocks that stop of their own accord, broken old toys that are connected to the dead. But what this movie does that sets it apart from its contemporary peers is what I call a good old fashioned slow burn. The terror builds slowly and creeps up on you until before you know it, there a freakin demon crawling up your leg! The ambiance in the film is pretty straight forward. Spooky old house in the middle of nowhere, dead trees, broken shutters, light fixtures that don't work, that sort of thing. The build was so effective that you never knew when it was appropriate to be anticipating a scare! Little things, like a child clapping her hands, made the entire audience jump in their seats. And THEN the scare would hit. I swear I heard grown men scream out at the jump scares. That never happens! And it's all because of the time they took to wrap you up in the characters and the setting before delivering the goods. And as for the goods, they nailed it! As with my last review of "Evil Dead", this film used minimal CGI, favoring instead, old classic cinema tricks and makeup to send that shock down your spine. This added another layer of realism to the ghosts running rampant through the story. I didn't spend my time counting pixels. Beyond all the great horror-y things this movie got right, including lighting, music, sound design, and tone, the acting was top notch across the board. Even the kids did a great job. Reactions felt legitimate. Conversations felt fluid.
After coming home from seeing "The Conjuring", I have reverted to my dork roots and looked up the history of this movie. Apparently, this movie idea has been on the books for over 20 years! Ed Warren had been directly involved in its realization until his death in 2006. Lorraine has continued working with the writers, directors, and actors even though shooting (which happened in mine and my fellow IBA-ers' backyard, Wilmington NC). She wanted to make sure that details were as accurate as they could be and that they told the story the way it should have been told. Leading actress, Vera Farmiga, worked with Lorraine in order to portray her as best she could. All of this effort was put into one film in order to make it an accurate depiction of a truly terrifying story and, by george, it worked! This was truly the scariest new movie I've watched in a good while. Knowing that this is documented to have actually happened made it even more frightening!
What is the best part of all of this, you may ask? The Warrens have literally hundreds of cases like this one on their books. Wikipedia says that the sequel is already in the works with Farmiga and co-star Patrick Wilson already signed on. The Warrens are sure to provide us with more heart pounding anxiety at least one more time!
I don't know how many of you are huge dorks like me, but when something interests me, I dig into it. I do personal research on the subject until I know as much as I can about it. I first learned of the Warrens through a series of documentaries on History or one of those channels about hauntings and paranormal investigators. Ed and Lorraine Warren are an actual married couple from New England who have been investigating paranormal cases all around the country since the 50's. They were the "original ghost hunters" They pioneered a lot of the techniques and tricks that modern investigators use today when trying to find the supernatural and tell it apart from creaky old houses that make noises. Just through the nature of their work, they have collected stories upon stories about everything from leaky water pipes to full on demonic possessions. They filled a warehouse with artifacts that were said to be haunted or inherently evil or used in satanic rituals. They have a museum in Connecticut of some of their most infamous artifacts. And many of their biggest cases have already been told about in shows and movies. The Amityville Horror? Yeah that was them! So that is where this whole movie came from. It is, in essence, a dramatization of one of their most terrifying cases. The beginning of the film features a recap of one of my favorites of their stories about a possessed evil doll called Anabelle. In the film, it is depicted as an ugly, decrepit looking china-faced doll. In reality, Anabelle was a simple Raggedy Anne doll, which to me, would be infinitely more horrifying!
So enough about background. Let's talk about the film as its own entity. This film takes place in the 70's and the decor and details are all correct but the story is so timeless that it wasn't until one of the characters said "groovy" about two thirds of the way in that I realized how spot on it was. So naturally, you're already transported into the middle of this house. The movie plays off all the old horror movie tropes. There is a dog that senses the spirits, clocks that stop of their own accord, broken old toys that are connected to the dead. But what this movie does that sets it apart from its contemporary peers is what I call a good old fashioned slow burn. The terror builds slowly and creeps up on you until before you know it, there a freakin demon crawling up your leg! The ambiance in the film is pretty straight forward. Spooky old house in the middle of nowhere, dead trees, broken shutters, light fixtures that don't work, that sort of thing. The build was so effective that you never knew when it was appropriate to be anticipating a scare! Little things, like a child clapping her hands, made the entire audience jump in their seats. And THEN the scare would hit. I swear I heard grown men scream out at the jump scares. That never happens! And it's all because of the time they took to wrap you up in the characters and the setting before delivering the goods. And as for the goods, they nailed it! As with my last review of "Evil Dead", this film used minimal CGI, favoring instead, old classic cinema tricks and makeup to send that shock down your spine. This added another layer of realism to the ghosts running rampant through the story. I didn't spend my time counting pixels. Beyond all the great horror-y things this movie got right, including lighting, music, sound design, and tone, the acting was top notch across the board. Even the kids did a great job. Reactions felt legitimate. Conversations felt fluid.
After coming home from seeing "The Conjuring", I have reverted to my dork roots and looked up the history of this movie. Apparently, this movie idea has been on the books for over 20 years! Ed Warren had been directly involved in its realization until his death in 2006. Lorraine has continued working with the writers, directors, and actors even though shooting (which happened in mine and my fellow IBA-ers' backyard, Wilmington NC). She wanted to make sure that details were as accurate as they could be and that they told the story the way it should have been told. Leading actress, Vera Farmiga, worked with Lorraine in order to portray her as best she could. All of this effort was put into one film in order to make it an accurate depiction of a truly terrifying story and, by george, it worked! This was truly the scariest new movie I've watched in a good while. Knowing that this is documented to have actually happened made it even more frightening!
What is the best part of all of this, you may ask? The Warrens have literally hundreds of cases like this one on their books. Wikipedia says that the sequel is already in the works with Farmiga and co-star Patrick Wilson already signed on. The Warrens are sure to provide us with more heart pounding anxiety at least one more time!
Nice review. Even though I wouldn't consider it terribly scary, I would still say it's a bunch of fun, especially if the horror genre is one of, if not your favorites.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. But considering the quality of horror flicks that have come out recently, this has to be one of the scariest! I mean, I was scared! And that doesn't happen often.
ReplyDelete