The Conjuring, 2013

*Warning* – if you’re not a fan of horror, if you don’t love to be bat-shit scared, DO NOT see this film.

Finally a decent return to the real horror genre. With tastes from classics like The Exorcist and Amityville Horror, this film will scare the pants off you!

As with most of the best horror classics, The Conjuring is set in the 1970s when exorcisms seemed to be slightly more commonplace (?) and houses in Connecticut were über isolated and surrounded by woods (oh hang on they still are!). The story centers around two families, the Warrens and the Perrons. The Warrens are a couple of demonologists with a young daughter, who spend their time investigating paranormal/unusual phenomena and occasionally assist with exorcisms. The Perrons are a family of seven (5 daughters) who have just moved to their new home in a beautiful wooded area in Connecticut – beautiful, isolated and haunted.

Again, as with most great horror films, this one opens with the simple newsprint type pre-amble telling us about the Warrens, and that this is based on true events that were so terrifying that they’ve been kept secret for many years.

This film is brilliant for several reasons – including the scares, the casting, and the filming/editing. The scares are what separates this movie from the basic “scary movie” and brings it into the horror genre. There isn’t any over reliance on CGI , they simply rely on your fear of things that go bump in the night, that something behind the door, or under the bed. They begin subtly, and for the connoisseur of the genre, just when you think you know there’ll be a scare, there’s that false sense of security, and then BAM they hit you when you weren’t expecting it. As always, the sound track is integral to the success of horror.

Patrick Wilson plays Ed Warren, the only non-priest demonologist to be recognised by the Catholic church. Wilson plays a character who could come across as tortured with great strength. Vera Farmiga plays Lorraine Warren, the talented clairvoyant wife of Ed and an important part of their team. Farmiga is stunning as always with a gentleness and tenderness yet a strength to her character. The Perrons – especially Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron – were perfect. Even the skeptical cop was just right.

The filming/editing make a massive difference to how a movie can come across. The use of unusual camera angles during particular scenes allowed the audience to empathize more that usual with the feelings of fear and disorientation that the characters were experiencing.

I was expecting to be scared by this movie, I enjoy being scared by horror movies – I was not disappointed. Take a friend or loved one along to see this movie, you’ll need someone to cling on to!