The Conjuring (2013)
Directed by James Wan
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.
40 connections found
View:
40 films that influenced The Conjuring
What critics say influenced The Conjuring
With its minimal use of digital effects, its strong, sympathetic performances and ace design work, the pic harks back in themes and methods to The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror , not quite attaining the poignancy and depth of the former but far exceeding the latter in sheer cinematic beauty.
While it owes an obvious debt to the likes of “The Exorcist,” “Poltergeist” and “ The Amityville Horror ” (itself inspired by the Warrens’ most famous case), this exuberantly creepy supernatural shocker is in many ways the film Wan has been working toward his whole career; it not only incorporates elements from his 2007 demon-doll thriller “Dead Silence” and his 2010 haunted-house saga “Insidious,” which felt like a warm-up exercise by comparison, but also taps into the sly, self-aware vein of humor that has long been one of Wan’s trademarks.
The movie is the result of years of work by producer Tony DeRosa-Grund, who assembled an ideal team and delivered a horror movie that can be favorably compared to classics like “The Exorcist,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Psycho.”
One of the scarier haunted house/demon possession movies in recent years, it brings to mind '70s supernatural horror films such as The Exorcist with its stillness, steady build of suspense and handsome cinematography.
There's some degree of religiosity in the picture (The Exorcist, after all, is like Top Gun for Catholics--or vice versa, I don't know; can you believe it was a witch?) that's echoed in interviews with the real-life Warrens, but, honestly, this thing is so allergic to anything like complexity that it's not worth anyone's time to dig around in there, either.
On its way toward a conclusion that manages to recall 1973's "The Exorcist" while taking the treatment of a real-life exorcism in a whole different direction, "The Conjuring" doesn't quite explore the tragic, malevolent backstory of the Perron farmhouse with the level of detail hoped for.
And "The Shining" still stands as one of the best-made horror flicks ever made in terms of both scares, acting, storytelling and filmmaking prowess (many have tried but none have matched the late great Stanley Kubrick's lone work in the genre).
One further nitpick: although this film is excellent, its simple, self-contained and anecdotal nature doesn't necessarily give it the same ability to hang around in mind like, say, The Shining , a film whose deep levels and themes stay with you long after the credits roll.
“The Conjuring” might play well with horror newbies, but I can’t imagine that anyone familiar with “The Shining,” “Halloween,” or “The Exorcist” will be terribly impressed by what’s here.
In a strange way, I was reminded of Donald Pleasance's Sam Loomis in the original Halloween.
The glowing porch recalls John Carpenter’s Halloween, a horror that suggested the comforts of home are fertile ground for accidental evil.
This small budget to high reward horror has been copied numerous times, from Scream, The Conjuring to Split, and every time it’s the small-scale original that’s the best.
While it owes an obvious debt to the likes of “The Exorcist,” “Poltergeist” and “ The Amityville Horror ” (itself inspired by the Warrens’ most famous case), this exuberantly creepy supernatural shocker is in many ways the film Wan has been working toward his whole career; it not only incorporates elements from his 2007 demon-doll thriller “Dead Silence” and his 2010 haunted-house saga “Insidious,” which felt like a warm-up exercise by comparison, but also taps into the sly, self-aware vein of humor that has long been one of Wan’s trademarks.
In fact, "The Conjuring" really does come from a true story, but director James Wan ("Insidious," "Saw") stages the story like a game of spot the cliche: There's a creepy doll, and an unsettling old music box, and a little kid who becomes friends with a spirit and finds nothing strange about her new, very pale pal appearing only in mirrors.
A more apt reference point is Wan's recent, slow-simmer horror outing "Insidious," which, like "The Conjuring," took its time in establishing the ground rules.
The Conjuring is a masterful little horror thriller that ranks right up there with Insidious as one of the best paranormal endeavors in the last 10 years.
All of this could have easily gotten hokey if it weren’t played totally straight, and Wan (“Insidious’’) weren’t so expert at making situations from other movies going all the way back to “The Exorcist’’ seem freshly chilling.
Advertisement
The terrific Farmiga, who doubles as Norman Bates' unstable mom on A&E's "Psycho"-centric "Bates Motel," apparently already has signed on to star in a few more Warren-based tales for the screen.
Wilson and Wan (who worked together on Insidious and its upcoming sequel) are comfortable enough with one another to allow Ed to be a charming enough straight-faced leading man, while Farmiga ( Up In the Air , Bates Motel) once again demonstrates why she is such solid and reliable actress, making Lorraine a fascinating and very human character, despite the fantastical nature of her "powers" and the supernatural world she inhabits.
Both Wilson and Farmiga are doing good things in the horror genre these days, with Wilson starring in Insidious and Farmiga making the rounds as Mrs. Bates in the Bates Motel TV series.
Farmiga, one of the best actors on television this past season in A&E’s “Bates Motel,” is haunting and haunted as Lorraine Warren, managing to convey the way her abilities drain her body and soul.
(Between this movie and her lead role on "Bates Motel," the TV series prequel to "Psycho," Farmiga is doing a lot to class up the horror genre this year.)
The movie is the result of years of work by producer Tony DeRosa-Grund, who assembled an ideal team and delivered a horror movie that can be favorably compared to classics like “The Exorcist,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Psycho.”
Before all that, though, "The Conjuring" begins with a bait-and-switch and an entirely different story set three years earlier, that of a devil doll in 1968 (the year of "Rosemary's Baby"!) terrorizing nurses in Manhattan.
Better films in this vein are (Robert Wise's) The Haunting, The Others, The Changeling (from which The Conjuring steals a gag), and, my personal fave of them all, The Innocents.
The Warrens would become more famous later, when they busted ghosts in a house in Amityville, the story that led to The Amityville Horror, a classic movie from 1979.
From The Old Dark House (1932) to The Haunting (1963) to The Amityville Horror (1979) to Poltergeist (1982) to recent hits like Sinister, Paranormal Activity, and Insidious — to say nothing of their sequels — audiences never seem to tire of things that go bump in the night, especially when it happens in a location that seems familiar, safe, and comfortable.
Ever since The Amityville Horror made an unexpected splash at the box office in 1979, very few movies about demonic houses have strayed far from the template.
Advertisement
Some of the mash-ups make sense -- "Paranormal Activity" segues smoothly into "The Exorcist" -- but does Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" really belong here?
With “The Conjuring,” he clearly set out to create old-school frights and cleverly tips his hat to “The Exorcist,” “Poltergeist,” “The Amityville Horror” and Alfred Hitchcock (“Psycho,” “The Birds”) throughout the film written by Chad and Carey Hayes (“The Reaping”).
Director James Wan ("Saw," "Insidious") has crafted a wickedly effective horror crowd-pleaser -- taking well-worn elements of the genre (from a long list of classics including "The Exorcist," "Poltergeist" and "The Birds") and recombining them using solid actors, a minimum of splatter, and a carefully engineered sense of dread.
A storm of crows looks more like something from "The Birds" than a modern movie apocalypse.
Better yet, his second feature, Dead Silence , for which The Conjuring frankly feels like an apology at times, as though he understood why each element of DS went wrong, and knew how to fix it, and did so.
While it owes an obvious debt to the likes of “The Exorcist,” “Poltergeist” and “ The Amityville Horror ” (itself inspired by the Warrens’ most famous case), this exuberantly creepy supernatural shocker is in many ways the film Wan has been working toward his whole career; it not only incorporates elements from his 2007 demon-doll thriller “Dead Silence” and his 2010 haunted-house saga “Insidious,” which felt like a warm-up exercise by comparison, but also taps into the sly, self-aware vein of humor that has long been one of Wan’s trademarks.
Invoking Dario Argento’s baroque operas ( Saw ), demon-doll movies ( Dead Silence ) and ghost-house horrors ( Insidious ), Wan’s filmography is nothing if not derivative.
The involvement of James Wan may explain the film’s ability to embrace and obtain enjoyment from the expected, as the director of Saw, Dead Silence and Insidious offers up his fifth horror effort.
2007's Dead Silence, for example, was a mostly gore-free ghost story where the boogeyman was a squad of possesses ventriloquists dolls, while 2010's Insidious channeled the spooky '80s favorite Poltergeist in its depiction of a young child seduced by forces from the other side.
It comes from director James Wan, a guy who started his career with Saw but has spent a lot of time since then paying homage to old-school horror thrillers with efforts like Dead Silence, the aforementioned Insidious, and its impending sequel.