The Conjuring: Scary Good

I don't know if its because we had people over and did the whole "lets watch a horror movie" thing with lights off, not too much talking and a midnight start or not but I jumped so many times during The Conjuring that its moved quickly to be my new favourite scary movie.



Its not because this is a super original movie as the story itself is a fairly simple and heavily used one, apparently because it is the most popular American urban legend: happy family moves into house, strange stuff starts happening, haunting ensues.  It has been done before...



What makes up for this is execution: its excellent.  Looking at who is involved it is a bit more evident why this is the case as the writers and directors of The Conjuring all have a lot of good work to their names.

Chad and Casey Hayes, who are listed on IMDB as the writers of The Conjuring, were behind House of Wax, The Reaping and Whiteout:all three movies that I have watched and enjoyed.  House of Wax, perhaps best known for having Paris Hilton in it, is actually on a semi regular rotation in our house just because its such a relaxing little horror movie.

The Director, James Wan, has directed a lot of movies I have enjoyed. No, not Saw.  I am not a fan of the whole torture porn genre and that's what Saw felt like to me; but he has done lots of good ghost stories like Insidious and Dead Silence.  In fact I didn't realise James Wan wrote and directed Dead Silence which I was talking about as being another well executed horror movie in the car with friends after watching The Conjuring.

How is the movie executed so well?  Well lets start with the slow buildup.  The movies take the time to let you get to know the protagonists - the family that has moved into the house, as well as the paranormal investigators that end up trying to help them.

Lovely family... you end up caring about them.
Clearly the parents aren't big on TV given the number of kids

Once you know and care about the protagonists, it begins.

The director uses camera angles really well, limiting the audiences field of view and making rooms seem small and creepy.  You always feel like there could be something just out of the camera's eye waiting to leap out; often there isn't but that sense of dread is such an important part of a horror movie and its done so well in The Conjuring.

Camera Angles... So very well done in The Conjuring

Another really good point of execution was sound effects.  These were subtle and understated in the main and that worked well.  Then there was the lack of creepy lead up music when you knew something bad was coming; the dreadful silence filled only by the breathing of terrified people was so much worse (or the music was really subtle...).

Something the movie doesn't do as well as others is keeping you in the dark.  This is a movie in which you discover everything that's going on and a friend of mine suggested it would have been better if our imaginations were required a bit more at some points (the ghoul reveal is sometimes better really late rather than early in the piece...).  I get that - its a strength of the movie The Blair Witch Project for example - but overall it didn't diminish the experience too much for me.

All in all a really good watch and worth waiting until a dark night with friends - not sure about the marks my wife left in my arm with her nails but always good when a movie gets to her too.  Thinking on it I enjoyed Insidious almost as much and now I cant wait for Insidious 2 and... according to IMDB... The Conjuring 2.

Oh and big selling point: no bloody shaky cam.