Review: The Conjuring

Copyright: Warner Bros.

James Wan reminds me of Stieve Martin. No, not because he also has silvery hair and likes to play a banjo, but because like Martin, Wan made both really great movies, and simultaneously, gave his audience films that were, in the best case, forgettable.

Unlike Martin, Wan works exclusively in the horror genre – he is best known for building the Saw franchise, a series that made a lot of money, but delivered much less in the cinematic sense, especially after the first movie that at least had some twisted ingenuity.

But, in 2011. Wan made Insidious, for me one of the best horror movies in the past decade. In The Conjuring, Wan reuses the classic horror movie formula that worked so well in previously mentioned picture. This time, he used a real life event, a haunting of the Perron family that moved into a isolated farmhouse in Rode Island that allegedly took place in 1970s.

The Conjuring splits its narration into two different stories – one follows the unsuspecting husband and wife with five daughters that are trying to set up inside an old, rustic family home, and the other follows Ed and Lorraine Warren, a pair of paranormal investigators. As the Perrons slowly slip into madness and fear brought on them by an unseen entity, the Warrens start to examine their case, and investigate the house. As the case builds, the terror increases, although the unnatural perpetrators, as well as their motives, remain unclear.

Wan brilliantly upgrades the more or less same story that was presented in the movie Poltergeist 30 years ago. The fear that the movie induces is based on anticipation and glimmers, but unlike movies from the Paranormal Activity franchise, this film manages our hearth arrhythmia perfectly, increasing and decreasing the tension gradually, but never allowing it to disperse completely. On the other hand, the characters, played effectively by veterans like Lili Taylor, Patrick Wilson and Ron Livingston, are not simple objects that the antagonist of the movie can freely manipulate and toy with. They are determined to fight whatever is causing the disturbance, and this gives the movie a more of a action/adventure underlining dynamic that I really appreciated.

Like others great directors, Wan forces you to watch the movie in a predefined manner. By doing this, he negates the possibility of looking for plot holes, mocking the decisions of the characters or being put off by imperfect acting from the supporting cast, and creates a visceral movie experience more than anything else. Drawing the audience in is the best characteristic of this great movie, and Wan does this so eloquently and subtly that you don’t even notice it, until of course, you jump from your set for the first time, and realize you’re hooked.