James Wan’s The Conjuring an Unsettling Supernatural Thriller
I’ve long felt that Saw originator James Wan had a good, solid, hold-on-to-your-armrests-and pray-it-will-turn-out-okay old-school horror movie in him. Dead Silence had some creepy imagery and some nice little moments, but a derivative script coupled with a laughable finale kept it from reaching its full potential. As for Insidious, I may be in the minority on this point, but the second half of that ghostly haunted house shocker was as major a letdown as anything I’ve seen in years. I came away disappointed.
Even so, Wan’s grip on the genre, his understanding of how to scare, when to show what’s going on (and when to keep things hidden), and how to utilize sound, it’s clear that the filmmaker knows what he is doing. I refuse to give up on him, and even though almost all of his features have frustrated me to one degree or another, I refuse to believe a guy with this much obvious talent doesn’t have it in him to produce a full-throttle, gut-wrenching shocker. At some point, it’s going to happen.
The Conjuring (2013) | PHOTO: Warner Bros.
That point is now. The Conjuring is an effective haunted house-slash-exorcism thriller that gets the job done. Made with style, imagination, and panache, it immediately got under my skin and then remained there for the remainder of its rattling 112 minutes, building to a solidly unsettling finale that held me spellbound, sitting on pins and needles.
Loosely based on a supposed true story (but let’s not hold that against Wan or screenwriters Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes), the plot follows Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). He’s a Vatican-approved demonologist; she’s a renowned clairvoyant. Together, they’re a husband-and-wife paranormal team who investigate spooky, unexplained phenomena and try to ascertain whether supernatural influences are at play. Sometimes it’s rusty pipes in desperate need of repair; others, it really is “Old Scratch” knocking at the door. Whichever it is, the Warrens are the go-to duo who can fill in the blanks and, hopefully, find a solution to the otherworldly problems that vex a terrified household.
Their latest case involves Roger Perron (Ron Livingston) and his wife Carolyn (Lili Taylor). They’ve just moved into a secluded gothic estate with their five daughters (Shanley Caswell, Hayley McFarland, Joey King, Mackenzie Foy, and Kyla Deaver) and are immediately beset with loads of unexplainable nastiness. The clocks all stop at precisely the same time. Games of “Hide and Clap” are played with the children asleep in their beds. Pictures fly off the walls. Bruised, battered, and bloodied specters hint at forthcoming doom. It’s up to Ed and Lorraine to solve this mystery, and what they uncover is an ancient evil beyond imagining.
I can’t say the story goes anywhere unexpected. But it’s the getting there that matters, Wan handling things with confidence as he makes each part of the surprisingly nuanced and character-driven script sing with unnerving authenticity. While hints of everything from The Haunting to The Exorcist, from The Amityville Horror to Poltergeist, to even more recent efforts like The Orphanage and Paranormal Activity abound, the film still delivers one solid scare after another. Magnificently lensed by John R. Leonetti (Piranha 3-D), exquisitely edited by Kirk M. Morri (The Hills Have Eyes 2), awesomely scored by Joseph Bishara (Dark Skies), and featuring some of the best sound design of 2013, The Conjuring is also a technical masterwork. I left the theater highly impressed.
But it is the ensemble that makes things work. I was invested in the outcome and was legitimately worried if every member of the Perron clan (or even either of the Warrens) would emerge from this frenzied vortex unscathed. Each actor is terrific, and Wilson and Farmiga soar as Ed and Lorraine. But it is Taylor who dazzles the most, her astonishing performance breathtaking in its passionate, soul-shattering complexity.
Wan balances the various subplots with consummate precision, dynamically moving each piece around his ghoulish chessboard with disquieting urgency. Even someone as jaded as I tend to be had to sit through the end credits still perched at the edge of my seat in an attempt to catch my breath and return to some semblance of normalcy. The Conjuring is the best film the director has made up to now. Here’s hoping he has more like this one in him.”
– Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 3 (out of 4)
