El conjuro

Like comedy, the horror genre can be a very subjective beast, finding or missing its mark as much do to its craft and execution as it does the particular individual who plops themselves into a theater seat. If something isn't scary to someone – someone who earnestly believes that of course – then a fright flick has failed at its core intent. Then we have something like James Wan's The Conjuring, an artful, confident throwback that succeeds in maintaining a high tensile level of pressure on our senses, crafting vital jump scares, a potent human element and all encompassing technical prowess. This is the type of brave, but stripped down horror filmmaking that forces you to analyze other elements besides just the full effectiveness of its frightening intent. Plus it's scary as hell.

The Conjuring completes a modern supernatural horror film trifecta started with Wan's own Insidious in 2010 and bridged by last year's unsettling Sinister. With these films the genre has proved that this is far from a dead, now inherently clichéd area of cinema and this effort is perhaps the best of all three. After breaking onto the scene in a big way with the trend setting Saw, the director took a bit of creative detour in the eyes of most with revenge thriller Death Sentence and supernatural doll flick Dead Silence (which is vastly underrated by the way) before rebounding with the aforementioned Insidious. For The Conjuring it seems Wan has taken everything he's learned – congealing everything he's found to be effective – and assembled them exquisitely and with ample new flare to boot.

The Conjuring pulls its inspiration from a case file of famed demonologists and paranormal investigators the Warrens, the husband and wife team who's other journeys inspired films such as The Amityville Horror. Here they are played respectively by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga who are now both genre regulars with roles in Insidious and the upcoming Chapter 2 due this year for the gentleman and Orphan and television's Psycho prequel Bates Motel for Farmiga. We've all seen the painful trope of priests, exorcists, psychics and every nut-job in between showing up at the eleventh hour to save a haunted family but the way they're approached in The Conjuring stands as one of the film's greatest strengths.

Though it's something that should be completely obvious out of the gate (but still something those inspired by the Warren's stories forget) this is just as much their story as those experiencing the phenomena. In giving nearly as much screen time to this duo as it does the Perron's (a seven family troop lead by actors Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor and their five daughters) we grow and involve with these nine individuals so when things get terrifying we not only feel just as much for everyone on screen but everyone gets a satisfying arc. It's something so rare in most horror films. Though this dynamic is certainly not presented through these two separate camps – the fearful and the experts – but the men bond over their love of cars and their wives and the women over the unfathomable: harm befalling their children. It's a satisfying an utterly untapped approach for the genre.

But "wait, wait" you proclaim "this is a horror movie after all, stop talking about the little girls and get to the scares!" Graciously, somewhat rude reader. The Conjuring is creepy, intermittently nightmarish, tense, gross, unsettling, and in its purest form, scary. This is the type of film that dares you not to hug yourself or laugh nervously in the hopes you deflect some iota of the sensation of primal fear. But these emotions are never extracted in a manipulative fashion and the jump scares are orchestrated effectively through physical objects falling, bumping, banging and generally causing off-putting noises, not blaring, out of context musical chords.

The camera work is also fantastic employing every angle imaginable and even some very impressive point of view and upside-down-spin shots. It's easily Wan's best directed effort to date but never one that lets its style eclipse the mood. Similarly his use of sound both in the score (which utilizes your average brooding options as well as sharp, grating notes that call back to horror of days gone by) and practical noises such as a strained rope swinging or a door slamming shut. Again, it all adds to the experience and in eventually pulling of the major frights.

Like most fare of this nature, the restrained tension does take a bit of a hit heading into the finale, as subtlety is sacrificed for more overt horror to resolve the story. Thankfully this change in approach is handled with just as much aplomb and also manages to deliver one of the most effective exorcism sequences in recent memory – a victory made all the more notable thanks to the generally overexposed and silly nature of that staple. It's not the perfect ending that the previous acts demanded but one that by no means insults the audience and still remains scary (if in a more upfront manner).

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay The Conjuring is that it actually deserves a sequel. There are tales of the Warrens left to tell and the acting is uniformly strong enough that revisiting these characters would be more a treat then a chore. It takes a skillful filmmaker to take well worn themes and approaches (while avoiding gore and a high body count to boot) and make them seem as original as ever. Coming from a huge horror buff and one that experiences more disappointments then the average soul can handle, I can earnestly say The Conjuring is one of the best ever and what can serve as a fantastic induction into the genre for the uninitiated.

Just saw it yesterday in Nocturna Fim Festival. It was an outstanding film. So well done, scripted and acted. The movie doesn't have any mercy on the audience and it's so disturbing you won't believe until you see.

I'm not gonna enter in details or spoilers, just gonna let you now it a movie that gonna stay for you for a while after you see it. It also opens a door for becoming quite a paranormal investigator myself, looking up for all the details mentioned in the movie, and getting amazed by it' accuracy.

This film it's made to become a new classic in the horror genre, not only because it's quality, but because it's fright factor.

The first half of the movie it's paced down, let you know and love the characters. but the second half! oh boy! it's so damn chilling it will keep you gasping and crawling your hands.

Very well done

I'm an avid horror fan. Lately I've been thinking there isn't much that can scare me (though Sinister got under my skin). I appreciate James Wan's films, I love the first Saw, Insidious was a damn good modern ghost story, but like all reviews have stated for it, the movie kinda loses it's momentum in the final act.

The Conjuring is better, scarier, and more tense than Insidious. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's one of the best horror movies of the last 5 or 10 years. It goes back to the classic rule of horror film making, never show the bad guy fully to your audience. Plus this movie knows suspense, I tell you, I almost threw a water bottle at the screen from sheer terror once the scare finally happened. There are no fake jump scares, the movie earned an R rating without any blood, sex, or profanity, it's all from the terror that this movie builds upon.

Not only is the movie scary, but as a film itself, it's almost a masterpiece. The script, acting, direction, style, tone, etc were all simply top notch. Wan's camera-work here is by far his best out of any of his movies. The choice to set the movie in the 70s was a stroke of genius as it feels so authentic and all the more real. If this story were set in the present, it simply wouldn't be as a effective or scary. The 70s style film making, costuming, and hair styling are a great throwback to likes of The Exorcist & The Amityville Horror.

Though there are a few (extremely minor) flaws, such are length, repetitiveness, and a resolution that happens way too fast. I don't care, every horror movie (or movie in general) has it's flaws. There will never be a perfect horror movie, if there is one, I haven't seen it yet. But all I know is James Wan's The Conjuring is one of the best horror movies I've seen in a long time, and it's been a really long time that a movie has scared me this badly.

10/10 Don't miss this one, it's an amazing theater viewing experience.

It's several years since this film was released, and I have to say that none of the shine has come off it, the quality is still very much there, the film is a classic. As a horror it packs in some real scares, but there is so much more to it, it has tension, a story, and some real intrigue, possibly because of the fact that it was inspired by real life events.

Several films have followed, sequels and spin offs, but none of them come close to this, the only Horror film for many years to actually give me a few scares.

Many of the scares are so memorable, because they are so well executed, they got the balance just right.

Incredibly well acted, the performances are one of the film's best assets, but there are many besides.

I'd have moved! It's a classic, 9/10.

The Conjuring claims to be based on a true story about one of the Warrens' paranormal investigations. At this point, that fact doesn't quite matter, especially when this is mostly designed as a horror movie. And as a horror movie, its job is to offer real terror and take any ghostly elements seriously. The film isn't actually trying to give newer scares. This is old school stuff, but good old school horror movie stuff. This is the kind that gets to do more than pull off another jump scare trick. Another benefit the movie got is its director, James Wan, who delivers a crafty storytelling. The Conjuring is not terribly innovative, but I don't think it needed to. It's the execution that keeps everything so gripping, and I think we needed that in this suffering era of the genre.

The story is actually more than the haunting of the Perrons. The first act juxtaposed between their situation and the life of the Warrens. The Warrens side is a fascinating little exposition of their daily life and job, while the Perrons are introduced like any typical horror film that has a haunted house and family in it, the danger is slow burn until they get to realize they needed help. What makes this somewhat different from those clichés is we are also supposed to root and care for the investigators, like we do not want them to be harm by the spirits as well. For that, the tension becomes much effective.

Even at the less scary scenes, the film is also interesting. And yes, all the characters are worth rooting for. The major ones get their own stories told at the beginning and some flashbacks in the middle of the mystery. The performances are pretty enjoyable as they take the viewers into the characters' mind. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are excellent at exploring their roles and whatever they do are totally intriguing. Lili Taylor is engaging enough for shifting her character's innocence to something terrifying.

Most of the credit goes to director James Wan who makes it all compelling. We already accepted that jump scares are inevitable to our modern horror movies, but the better scares go when it shows its campiness, like the creepy update of the Annabelle doll, and some demonic masks and makeup. They are unlike to today's tricks that depend on gore and repetitive noise. There is also genuine terror can be felt in the quiet scenes. The finale is kind of ridiculous, but it's filled with energetic action which makes the ride even much fun. Apart from the scary stuff, the film continues to employ its style that serves a lot of magnificent shots. This could be one of the best looking movies I've seen this year. The music score brings sorts of good chills.

The Conjuring is no groundbreaker, but the film is best at recapturing the classic horror. Extra merit is fleshing out and adding depth to the story which made the ghost hunting investigation more thrilling. The craft is amazing and the performances are terrific. I think it has most of the things that lack in our horror films today; curiously setting the pieces together, relateable characters, good creeps, and full insanity. The Conjuring isn't meant to change the game, but because of the filmmakers' ambition and love for the genre, it is a marvelous experience.