The Conjuring (2013)

Here’s the problem that’s been plaguing the horror genre for the last several years: there are only so many forms such a film can take. There are slasher films, psychological horror films, haunted house films, monster films, and that’s really about it. (I'm undoubtedly missing a couple, so don't be angry at me.) As such, it seems unlikely that anybody is going to reinvent the wheel anytime soon, so it’s up to today’s horror filmmakers to make that wheel as scary as possible. Most have not succeeded, but with his new film The Conjuring James Wan proves that it is possible to terrify audiences without gimmicks or excessive gore. All told, this is a fairly typical haunted house movie, but it’s one of the most genuinely scary and compelling films of its type I’ve seen in years. It’s a familiar dish, but it’s cooked to near-perfection.

Lorraine and Ed Warren (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, respectively) are a married team of paranormal investigators who go around helping people with their demonic dolls, creaky houses and the like. Meanwhile, the Perrons are a family of seven who decide to move into a house in the middle of the woods, which is always a good idea. Things get creepy right off the bat, but when the mother Carolyn (Lili Taylor) decides to do some digging around in the middle of the night, it becomes clear that there are truly evil paranormal forces at work. They decide to bring the Warrens into the mix, all while Carolyn and her husband Roger (Ron Livingston) try to keep their family sane in the midst of all the creepy chaos. Things just escalate from there. The Perron children are played by Mackenzie Foy, Joey King, Hayley McFarland, Shanley Caswell and Kyla Deaver, and the Warrens’ investigation is assisted by the likes of Drew (Shannon Kook) and local police officer Brad (John Brotherton).

I have but two quarrels with The Conjuring, and neither are glaring enough to diminish my appreciation for what Wan has done here. The first is that the ending seems just a bit too simple for my liking. I won’t go into detail here, of course, but I do appreciate how it avoids the blunt, empty nihilism that can be seen in a lot of recent horror films, particularly those in the found footage genre. However, I also feel like it doesn’t quite have all the power it could. There’s no doubt that the film writes itself into a corner that is has to find a way out of, and while it might have ultimately chosen the most efficient course of action there may be a more dramatically satisfying climax out there that Wan and writers Chad and Carey Hayes didn’t quite discover. As for the second problem, the musical score by Joseph Bishara is a bit too distracting at times. The audience knows they’re watching a horror film. They don’t need to Bishara around to constantly remind them of that fact.

Again, these are but quibbles. When The Conjuring gets down to the business of scaring the crap out of everyone in the audience, its batting average is off the charts. This film has some of the best jump scares I’ve seen in a recent movie, and that’s because it earns them the right way. One of the great sins of the Paranormal Activity sequels is that they rely too much on false scares, and once the threats become real they lose all their impact. In The Conjuring, the threats are very, very real, and they are very, very terrifying. Wan doesn’t do anything the easy way. The fashion in which he crafts and choreographs each individual sequence is impressive. He’s not trying to simply jolt the audience out of their seat then move on to the next thing. The sense of dread in The Conjuring is so thick you could cut right through it with a knife, and that makes each and every scare land even harder.

I would not describe myself as a horror fan in the slightest. Really, that genre is one of my blind spots. When I say this I don’t mean I hate horror movies, but rather I have zero interest in anything other than good horror movies. Unless I hear that one is well done or important in some way, I usually don’t bother with it. At no point in my life have I had any interest in sitting down and watch a human being get carved to pieces just for the fun of it. (That’s why I skipped the Evil Dead remake. By all accounts it did precisely what it wanted to do. I just have no interest in what it wants to do.) However, a film like The Conjuring is impressive no matter your cinematic inclination. With this film, Wan has done away with just about everything that gets in the way of creating an efficient thrill ride. There’s the house, there’s the demonic entity, there’s the family it’s preying on, and there’s the couple that are going to try and stop it. He simply throws all these factors into one film and lets the results play out. The product is not only relentlessly unnerving, but also tremendously entertaining, and it’s that latter part that’s always the key. It’s one thing to make the audience jump. It’s another to keep them invested in what’s going on in between the scares. Only then can you truly have them in the palm of your hand.

Grade: A-