So this year throughout Halloween, me and the missus have decided to take a trip through all of 'The Conjuring' movies. And kicking things off, we have the original entry that started the 11 film franchise that just WILL NOT DIE.
Yes, its the original 'Conjuring', a 'Based on a true story' style adaptation of the 1971 story of the Perron family, a young couple with 5 daughters who move into a farm house that is NOT *The* Amityville house…only to find that things take a turn for the spooky.
When the Warrrens come into the area to give a series of lecture talks, mother Carolyn reaches out to the paranormalists to investigate…only to unearth the terrifying reality that their family home…has basically been the epicenter of a dozen grizzly murders all stemming back to the awful tale of a witch who took her own life on a tree near the family home, cursing the land in the process.
Together, the Warrens and the Perrons (alongside local law enforcement) must work together to try and cleanse the house of the evil spirits, before things go too far out out of control!
And all round? I can absolutely see why this is a much loved modernization of the 'Haunted House' film. It has the grounding of it being loosely based on a true story, but the modern film making techniques to help give it the kind of glossy sheen that the likes of the original 'Amityville horror' or 'The Evil Dead' cant really compete with. As for me? I can absolutely appreciate this one for what it is, a sturdy paranormal horror film. But I dont *personally* think I enjoy this one as much as I do films like 'Insideous' or the 'Sinister' series.
Across the board everythings really pretty solid. The script tells a compelling story, its paced out rather well, tonally its consistent across the runtime, having the script based of real life accounts means that the characters feel much more real and complex than had this been a total work of fiction. The dialogues a little bit pompus in places…but Its all thematic tone setting, so I can kind of give it a pass on that front.
What I cant excuse however is the runtime, clocking in at just shy of 2 hours, the pacing at times here is meandering. Some would say its contextualizing, or getting us fully bedded into our characters for the film. But I say that this could have been 15-20 minutes shorter and would have been a LOT lot better. As it stands? At the length it runs to, I found myself struggling to really stay engaged with the plot when things got a bit too 'all American Schmaltz' or when they were just…existing and not really doing much else.
Outside of that though, The rest of the film is pretty solid. The directions got a very clear and distinct vision, so much so that it clearly helped influence most low budget haunted house movies of the last 13 years. theres some really nice suspense moments across the runtime and some effective sequences that have been intentionally planned out to leave the audience not *quite* sure what they're looking at.
Direction of the cast *is* a little theatrical for my blood, lacking that grittier roughness of a 'of real life' performance. But on the whole, I think its solid, the cast are fairly reactive, hit their marks, and the scenes have clearly been marked out for maximum shock and scare factor.
The cine is also pretty solid, while it has to be said, some of the CGI is starting to show its age a bit. on the whole compositions are distinct, creative and feel great. sequences are fairly well crafted, the edit is rock solid and theres plenty of B-roll to help keep things fresh, flowing and moving along.
Performances are largely solid too, the obvious limelight stealer here is Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron, she gets a really meaty duel performance across the runtime that really showcases her versatility and capability as a performer, she felt like one of the more believable performances, and is almost worth the price of admission alone! Credit also has to go to the Warrens themselves Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who both come across as sincere, if not a little preachy as the Warrens, again getting a good versatile range to work with and delivering exactly what you wanna see when you come to a paranormal spooky movie.
The rest of the cast unfortunately do run the gauntlet from just about believable, to just a bit dry and awkward, to 'Asylum' level performances…its a mixed bag and probably the weakest element of this production on the whole if im being honest.
And finally, the soundtrack! Which is a solid semi orchestral work with a few contemporary jukebox tracks dropped in, it definitely creates a solid atmosphere, but im not sure if id say it was particularly memorable. This film also commits the cardinal sin of doing audio jumpscares and mixing the audio tracks VERY poorly…meaning for the most part I had to have subtitles on to even figure out what was being said, and frequently the film would go from characters mumbling border inaudibly, to a jumpscare sting that damn near ruptured next DOORS eardrums…letalone my own…
All in all? 'The Conjuring' is absolutely a solid horror film from the 2010's…sometimes mainstream horror films are mainstream BECAUSE they're just really quite well made, and I think this one almost certainly is that way. While I have my own personal issues with this one. I can acknowledge that this was a fun watch ultimately, one I've watched a few times over the years, and no doubt will watch again. I can recommend it if you havent seen it before, if nothing else so that you can appreciate where most of the films that imitate this one got their ideas from. Just buckle up for that hour and 52 runtime, because it feels every bit as long as that runtime suggests!
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-conjuring/
