The Conjuring is the best mainstream horror movie in years

Long before the glut of reality TV “Ghost Hunter” shows, there was the real-life paranormal investigative couple Ed and Lorraine Warren, who rose to fame following their involvement in the infamous Amityville haunting. However, prior to that case, as The Conjuring’s opening scroll helpfully points out, the Warren’s were reportedly involved in another terrifying haunted house episode that has remained under wraps ever since.

Allegedly based on the “true events” of this Warren case, The Conjuring is an extremely efficient and frightening haunted house flick. Director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) has crafted a beautifully shot, slow-burn of a thriller that relies more on Hitchcockian suspense methods than flat-out gore. This is a film that very slowly ratchets up the tension throughout, until finally exploding in the film’s last moments.

Our initially happy family consists of Roger and Carolyn Perron (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) and their five daughters, who move into a foreclosed, dilapidated house in Rhode Island in 1971. Things quickly begin to go awry for the family after they discover a hidden boarded-up cellar; a revolting stench follows them throughout the house, the clocks all stop at the same time, Carolyn wakes up with bruises all over her body, and one of their daughters suddenly develops a new imaginary “friend”. Convinced that some force is targeting their family, Carolyn seeks out the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), a couple specializing in paranormal activity; Ed is a specialist in Demonology, while his wife Lorraine is attuned to the psychic realm. After a visit to the Perron house, it becomes clear that something evil is at work, and the Warren’s bring in a support team, along with a host of 70’s era A/V equipment, to root out the presence in the home.

If all of this seems familiar, it’s because The Conjuring liberally borrows from any number of horror films of the past few decades, notably The Exorcist, and to a lesser extent, every middling-to-terrible exorcism-related film in recent memory. However, Wan manages to imbue The Conjuring with enough artistic flourishes to elevate the film above the direct-to-video feel of most of these forgettable releases. From the excellent sound design that often flips from a whisper to a cacophony on the drop of a dime, to the swirling Dario Argento-esque camera moves that leap in and around the home, Wan clearly demonstrates his love of classic 70’s horror, which seeps into every aspect of the film.

Unfairly maligned as a proponent of the “torture porn” sub-genre for his early work on the Saw franchise, Wan lets your imagination do most of the work this time around. Long dark stretches go by with only a match stick light to illuminate the surroundings, and apart from a few false-flag jump scares, very little is seen of the presence itself until the film’s final bombastic scenes.

The cast is also uniformly great, with Lili Taylor in particular having to run through the full gamut of emotions while trying to protect her family from an unassailable force. If there was one complaint to level against The Conjuring, it would be the film’s final moments, which push back against the unbearable dread of the preceding 100+ minutes to conveniently wrap up on a warm and carefree note. Because who wouldn’t be ready with a wisecrack after just having fought off and protected their family from a demonic force?

Barring that small caveat, The Conjuring is definitely one of the best mainstream horror films to come along in years, and is unequivocally worth seeing in the theatre for the full communal experience;  during the pre-screening, the audience shrieks throughout received just as much applause as the film itself.