Official Synopsis
Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville. Based on the true life story, “The Conjuring” tells the tale of how world renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were called upon to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most horrifying case of their lives.
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While certainly this formula has been done before in horror films (I mean, there’s only so many ways you can make a horror movie), it was done particularly well by director James Wan and crew with The Conjuring. Using ‘building’ moments that most horror movies tend to forget about nowadays, The Conjuring sprinkles little dashes of fright amongst its scenes, while building to one gigantic freakout. It’s a brilliant method that works and makes The Conjuring more than just another ‘Paranormal Activity’ type of event. For example, when we are first introduced to the demon in the house, it starts with the children. Christine Perron (played by Joey King) gets tugged at night by the foot. Then she gets tugged and poked. Then she is yanked and woken up and simply stares at an empty doorway, crying her eyes out and swearing that there is someone there that no one else can see. Her gradual trip to her tremendous freakout is amazingly creepy, and Joey King should get some major credit for delivering the goods with her reaction. This is one of a few examples of how building that creepy suspense really helps with the overall payoff of the film.
Scenes like King’s are scattered throughout the film, and not just done in a messy way, rather a methodical and meaningful way. The eventual torture and possession of Carolyn Perron (played by the wonderful Lili Taylor) is another example of slow build that eventually coalesces into a heightened dramatic horror-filled moment. She is toyed with by the demon until the demon completely freaks her out, then the demon takes her. It will certainly give you goosebumps. Again, this sort of build, release, build, release and then finally build and capture isn’t anything new to the horror genre, but it’s something that horror filmmakers certainly forget about. You simply cannot rush to the ‘moment’, and this proves it. To be quite frank, The Conjuring does everything right because of this slow methodical build and ‘gotcha’ sort of moment. That is why it’s mostly successful.
Another nice part of the film was how it flowed. Director James Wan did a good job with structuring the roller coaster ride between plot points. He did a nice job of introducing the Warrens and what they did, then shifted perfectly to the Perron’s situation as it gets started. The back and forth between two worlds came seamlessly together as it should through a chance meeting. The Perron family wasn’t looking through the Yellow Pages for help, rather they found the Warrens by chance, and it made sense. Most importantly about this is that the stories were able to develop on their own and felt natural in the scheme of the story. I love it when stories feel and look like they should. It’s rare that a horror story these days doesn’t rush to the scary moments. It’s nice to see someone take the time to tell the entire story.
With that said, it’s not perfect. I think we needed a bit more explanation about what happened with Lorraine Warren (played by Vera Farmiga) not only in her past, but also how things chip away at her as she investigates. Don’t’ get me wrong, I fully understood most of her character, but I felt like the character development came up just a tad bit short. We never knew fully what was at stake with her participating in these rituals and contacting/seeing the evil spirits in the world. It was explained by her husband Ed Warren (played by Patrick Wilson), but I would have rather seen what it does to her. I had a screenwriting teacher who always preferred visuals to over-explanation, and I felt like they over-explained her situation. Maybe the real Lorraine Warren wouldn’t let the filmmakers get the full explanation to create said visuals, but regardless I think she needed a bit more depth. It certainly would have made the events in the film feel a bit more horrifying.
At the end of the day, The Conjuring is one of the best horror films I’ve seen in the last 10 years. There isn’t much out there that can scare the shit out of me since I’ve seen so many horror films over the years, but this one certainly did it. I had never jumped so many times or felt creeped out so many times by a horror film. Credit James Wan’s insight to bringing back that classic slow building technique that made horror films of the past so satisfying and beautiful. I hope other movies take note of this technique, as it’s the proper way to suck your audience in and spit them back into a horrifying situation. That’s why we go to these films, so it’s only proper that is the end result.
Anyway, go see this if you haven’t. It’s a perfect fit for this time of year.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, nothing but perfection from Warner Home Video. I still consider them one of the top studios when it comes to transferring a film to the Blu-ray format. This movie certainly showed off their talents. The Conjuring relies on a lot of blacks/whites in most of the shots, even down to the clothing of the main characters. It’s impressive to see how well both colors stand out, which amplifies the horror aspect of the film. There is no graininess, which is shocking considering how much black/white is relied on. There isn’t any signs of color banding or artifacts. Again, it’s impressive and just another example of how good Warner Home Video can be with its Blu-ray releases.
As for the audio it comes to you in DTS-HD 5.1 (no, 7.1? C’mon!) and the aspect ratio of the film is 2.4:1.
Finally, as for the features, here’s what you’re looking at:
· The Conjuring: Face-to-Face with Terror
· A Life in Demonology
· Scaring the “@$*%” Out of You
I wish there were more features. I wanted commentary badly for this film. What you do get with the special features is pretty extensive, though. The Face-to-Face with Terror is a great feature about how the film was put together, what they went through and what decisions were made to get where it needed to get. A really great feature in this bunch is A Life with Demonology, which gives you some background on the Warrens and other folks of her type. As for the last feature, I’ll let you enjoy that one.
A good set of features, but I wish there were a bit more.
Own it on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and HD Digital Download 10/22
