Wednesday 7 August 2013

 
THE CONJURING - MOVIE REVIEW
 
The Conjuring is a 2013 horror film directed by James Wan, who horror fans may remember directing Insidious. The film stars Vera Farmega and Patrick Wilson as two paranormal investigators Ed & Lorraine Warren, which is based on a true story surrounding the Warrens.
 
There will be no major spoilers in this review but here is a brief description of the plot. The film starts off with a family named The Perrins {mother & father are Carolyn & Roger} along with their five daughters, move into an old farmhouse. Straight away you know there is something not quite right with the house as the family dog refuses to enter the home. The first night goes well, the next day one of the daughters, whilst playing hide & clap with her sisters, finds the boarded up entrance to the cellar. The next morning Carolyn wakes up to find she has a couple of very strange bruises on her body, and when one of the daughters goes out onto the front porch, screams in horror and the family discover that the dog is dead, or has been killed. Over the next few nights other strange occurrences happen within the house, doors open by themselves, another one of the daughters has her foot pulled, and other strange phenomena. A couple of nights later, Roger goes to work away and Carolyn whilst in the cellar, whilst one of her daughters is attacked by a demonic entity. Scared and unsure where to turn, the Perrins seek help from Ed & Lorraine Warren and initially the investigators are sceptical as they have dealt with thousands of enquiries and most are easily debunked as minor issues within the home for example drainage in the pipework causing the creaking noises. However instantly, Lorraine begins n the house and after the couple further investigate the origins of the home and its previous owners, they soon realise that this is the real deal and set out to capture activity within the home and set up cameras and other equipment in the various rooms. From there, the Warrens also become subject to strange activity going on in their home, and from there I won't go much further but needless to say the shit really hits the fan.

Now I went into this film not seeing ANY footage of the trailer, i had only looked at the very creepy poster advertising it {the one with the creepy as hell doll and the mysterious figure holding it} so I was excited to see this film as i am a big horror and this looked like it had a great chance of being...great. I have a feeling this film will divide opinion amongst fans of horror, some will say this is a run of the mill, average horror flick with nothing new brought to the table and is full of jump-scares, others will say it is a genuinely strange and creepy ride that has the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I'm more leaning towards the first statement to be honest.

Now James Wan directed this film and like I stated earlier he directed Insidious, a film which I have criticised for having a lot of promise and a decent story, but turned into a silly film with again, nothing new brought to the table. I would have to say the same again here, except the story is more appealing as it is apparently based on a true story.

So where does the good lay in this film? There is some very good camerawork here and just like Insidious it also has this plus some very spooky and atmospheric music that adds the right amount of tension to each scene. I enjoyed the acting from everyone in the film and yes, that includes the child actors. They made you believe they were genuinely frightened in a lot of their scenes and that was their job so I cannot and will not fault them for that. The Warrens came across as a very loving couple and Farmega and Wilson were very good in their roles and I liked that they weren't typical paranormal investigators that instantly believed every home is haunted, so I enjoyed that element to the film. There is a good 75% of the film where the tension builds and builds and builds some more and that helps you feel "scared", even when nothing is actually happening. The story is good too, although I know I haven't divulged into it to much but I don't want to give away the entire plot.


But i will say right now, this film bored me to tears at many points and in many scenes. There was a lot of jump-scares and I am aware you need a certain amount in horror films as they are part and parcel of the genre, but there was no originality to any of them. Did I jump a few times? Yes I did however turning the noise level up in certain scenes just to amplify the noise to scare the viewer will make you jump simple as that. There are so many clichés and very predictable scares that for me takes the suspense and tension out of every major scary scenes as you know what is going to happen 90% of the time in this film. I will be honest now and say i was sat in the cinema watching and I predicted EVERY twist in the film, seriously. By the way the creepy doll from the poster, is a major plot point of the film thus my reason for not going into too much detail about it.

Is it a terrible film? No not by any means but I found it extremely boring and predictable. Again, no spoilers but the last 20 minutes turns so goofy and stupid whilst being unoriginal, that it almost turns funny, and that again is my point about taking tension and suspense from what the film was trying to achieve. If you are easily scared, and there is nothing wrong with that, then I think you will enjoy The Conjuring. It is only just under 2 hours and it passes very quickly so even if you don't enjoy the film it doesn't last forever like some horror films tend to. I went into this film excited, but left disappointed. It tries to be different, however suffers from unoriginality. Whilst the story is enough to carry you through the film, the lack of genuine scares is its biggest flaw and is a shame because it had so much potential to be better than most horror films of the last few years.

My Rating- 5/10

Positives - Camerawork, Acting from everyone was top notch, good CGI although not a lot of it was used which was good to see, interesting story.

Negatives - Unoriginal, last 20 minutes was awful and cringe worthy to watch, very, very slow build up but with no real pay-off, very generic and boring in many parts.


The Conjuring won't give you anything to lose sleep over, but it is a horror film that although doesn't accomplish a lot, does have some interesting story elements and tension build up.

Thanks again as always everyone for reading this review I appreciate every view and feedback.

Comment below let me know what you thought of The Conjuring, did it freak you out? Did you enjoy it/not enjoy it, if so why/why not? Would you be happy to see a second film if they decided to do so? Comment below say whatever you want! {Commenting below is subject to signing up to Google+} If you liked/enjoyed this review please feel free to share this on other blog sites, +1 this if you are on Google+, subscribe to my blog so you will never miss a review, follow me on Twitter @MARRAMD. My next review will be for the upcoming film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.

Take care :]

No comments:

Post a Comment