The Conjuring (2013)

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nTitle: The Conjuring (2013)

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nDirector: James Wan

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nCast: Lily Taylor, Patrick Wilson, Vera Fermiga, RonnLivingston

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nIf you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you’llnprobably know how I’m always bitching and moaning about the current state ofnAmerican Horror films. It is my opinion that American Horror films are sonwatered down, so neutered that they just don’t have that same shock value thatnfilms from the 70’s or 80s had. Films like The Exorcist (1973) and TexasnChainsaw Massacre (1974) seem like rarities when compared to the kind of horrornfilms that we’re getting nowadays. Horror films that truly shock and scare seemnto come around every once in a blue moon. The truth of the matter is that likenany other type of film, a good one is a rare thing. A truly good film on anyngenre, a classic, only comes around when a true genius is behind the camera; angood director who truly understands how a horror film works, how the mind ofnthe audience can be manipulated, how music plays such an important part in thenoverall effect of a horror film. Not many directors understand these things andntherefore many of the horror films released today are simply not effective. Butnthere is hope at the end of the tunnel, there is a light shinning.

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nI remember a time when horror directors where a strong breed,ngrowing in numbers, cranking out horror film after horror film. This was thentime when we’d see Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, George Romero and John Carpenter allnmaking films at the same time in Hollywood, scaring the nation with theirnfilms. You saw their name in a movie poster and you knew the film was beingnmade by a director who understands the horror genre and was attempting to makena film that you wouldn’t feel cheated by, these were directors that truly lovednthe genre. Todays horror directors are scarce; rarely do we see a directorncompletely devoted to the horror genre. Today, directors who specializenin horror are limited to releasing their films solely on dvd.  This is why we have guys like Ty West, andirector who’s showed promise with films like The House of the Devil (2009) andnThe Innkeepers (2011), but has yet to have a theatrical release. During the 80’snwe’d see A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13^th films everyncouple of months. Today we got reboots to both of those franchises, yet neithernhas spawned sequels! What gives? If this was the eighties we’d have two ornthree of these films already! We’d be on Friday the 13^th reboot partn8 by now! What’s going on with horror today? Is it being slowly strangled tondeath? It’s certainly slowed down its pace in theater screens thats for sure. 

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nSo along comes a film like The Conjuring, directed by JamesnWan, a director who’s slowly but surely made his name in the horror genre. It’snalways interesting to see a director get better and better with each film. I’venbeen following the career of James Wan since he first shocked me with the firstnSAW (2004) film. Yeah, remember that first SAW film? Not the endless, crappy sequels, but that first one that reallynshocked the pants off of you? That was Wan on his first freaking film, so thenguy was showing promise from the very beginning of his career. He’s continuednmaking effective horror films like for example Insidious (2011), a horror filmnthat I really liked because it managed to scare us by playing with our minds rather than try and shock us with gore. Itnplayed with our expectations of a horror film and it had an awesomely creepy musical score. So herencomes James Wan again, with another horror offering. This time it’s a filmnbased on “real life events” which of course in my book translates to “exaggeratednto the point of unrecognizable”. The question in my mind was: do we need anothernfilm about demonic possession? How in the hell do you make these films scarynagain? Demonic possession films are a joke to me because they rarely reach thenlevel of intensity needed to truly scare. With so many demonic possession filmsncoming off as laughable and hokey, how was James Wan going to pull off anneffective film of this nature, especially when they’ve been done to death?

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nThe Conjuring is based on the real life exploits of ‘ThenWarrens’ a married couple that has dedicated their entire lives to researchingnthe supernatural. They call themselves ‘Paranormal Investigators’ but if younask me Ed and Lorraine Warren are simply scam artists that for years havenmanaged to take advantage of superstitious people and their fears. Same goesnwith the people behind the whole Amityville story. These are stories that servenonly one purpose and one purpose alone, to sell books and movies; a goal thatnthey’ve managed to achieve quite well; Ed and Lorraine Warren have about sixnbooks to their name alone. The guys behind The Amityville Horror have got ancouple of books and movies under their belt as well. But if we get down to it, ifnwe search for the reality behind stories like The Amityville Horror for example,nthey can all be traced down to real life troubles or to people getting togethernto tell a big fat tall tale and then getting the world to believe it in ordernto sell a couple of books and make a few movies along the way. Case in point:nThe Conjuring has passed the 100 million mark at the box office. Why? Becausenit’s a good horror film that feeds on people fears; you smack the “based onnreal life” moniker on any movie and a huge chunk of the population willninstantly believe it to be true. They’ll be freaked out even before the lightsngo down in the theater.  But who cares ifnthese stories are total bullcrap or not, what matters to me is if theynentertain me or not. I am happy to state that The Conjuring was an effectivelyncreepy horror film, director James Wan has fully matured into a great horrorndirector, one of the best of his generation.

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nWhat makes The Conjuring a great horror film? It can all be attributednto James Wan and the way he directs a scene. It’s all in the way he stretches outnthe scares and the suspense. As a horror fan, watching The Conjuring felt greatnbecause I felt like finally, here’s a director who truly understands how a horrornfilm works! Wan has got the mechanics behind creeping out an audience down flat,nhe’s been using  atmosphere and slownboiling scare techniques since Dead Silence (1997) and Insidious (2011) whichnby the way is a great horror film, highly recommend that one to you guys. It isnmy opinion that with The Conjuring James Wan has perfected his scaringntechniques. He knows all the horror movie clichés and uses many of them, but henalso knows them  so well that he knowsnwhen to play around them, avoid them when you most expect them and then smacknyou in the face with them when you least expect it. Wan also uses music extremelynwell, and by the way, this is an area in which many would be horror directorsncompletely fail in, the music in a horror film should fill you with dread, it shouldncrawl under your skin and creep you out and Wan has complete dominion over thisnin his horror films.

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nNow I’m not saying that The Conjuring is the most originalnhorror film, because same as many of Wan’s films, it wears its influences onnits sleeves. Of course The Amityville Horror (1979) had a huge influence overnthis one, in fact, with a few changes here and there one could argue that ThenConjuring is simply a remake of The Amityville Horror but told from James Wan’snperspective. Let’s see, we have the family moving into a New York home, thenhouse has a spooky story filled with death behind it, the family is disturbednboth physically and psychologically, doors slam, demons knock on doors in thenmiddle of the night, demons knock over crucifixes and family pictures, thensimilarities between The Conjuring and The Amityville Horror are many, which isnwhy I think Wan was just doing his version of The Amityville Horror; paying hisnrespects to a film he obviously loves. The inclusion of The Warrens and the wholenrecognition that comes with their name is really the only thing that adds anlevel of originality to The Conjuring. But whatever, I sometimes call James Wannthe Tarantino of horror because it’s quite obvious that the filmmakers behindnthese films saw a bunch of classic horror films, put them all in a blender andnthen did their own thing with the resulting mix, same as Tarantino does with most of hisnmovies.

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nSo yeah, hip hip hooray for Wan and The Conjuring. One morengood thing I can say about the film is that it has a real 70’s feel to it. Inknow the film takes place during the 70’s but some of the shots, the music, even the titlensequence just screams 70’s horror film! So Mr. Wan, I salute you for that,ntrying to bring the big 70’s horror picture back into our times. I’m glad someone has finally taken the lead and set the horror train on the rightntrack, directors like James Wan show there is hope yet fornAmerican Horror films! I’m amazed that so many of James Wan’s movies have beennso successful, I guess the audience just recognizes a good horror movie whennthey see one. Wan is currently directing the seventh film in the Fast and thenFurious franchise, which by the way has grown into one of the biggestnfranchises in Hollywood right now. It’ll be interesting to see what he doesnwith that one, it will be the biggest film he has ever worked on! The way thesenFast and the Furious films have been going, I’m pretty sure that Wan’s successnis assured with that one. Let’s hope that this success will translate into Wan makingnmore horror movies.
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nRating: 4 out of 5  

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