The Conjuring Movie Review:
Wan Tonne of Talent
BY
IAN TAN
‘The Conjuring’ is
Malaysian-born director James Wan’s latest, and arguably scariest entry into
the horror film genre. After ditching the ultra-gore ridden ‘Saw’ series, Wan
set out on doing a true horror film, one that actually scares with things that
go bump in the night, shadows, eerie sound effects and all that good old-school
horror movie stuff; and he succeeded with 2010’s hit ‘Insidious’, which has a sequel
to be released Friday the 13th (heheh)
of September this year. With ‘Insidious’ being such a success, audiences cannot
wait to see what Wan has in store for them with ‘The Conjuring'. So, does his
latest offering deliver the goods of an effective horror film?
‘The Conjuring’ tells
the true story of the Perron family’s experience of happily moving into their
dream home only to realize that it’s (you’ve guessed it) haunted. Their dog
refusing to enter the house on the first day is a bad sign. They seek help from
demonologists/ “ghostbusters”/ paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren
to find out what lies behind the house’s haunting. And the proceedings get all
the more creepy.
The performances in
this film are a sigh of relief from most horror films, with the entire cast giving
it their all to their roles. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play their roles
convincingly as Ed and Lorraine Warren respectively and are given a touch of
humanity to them that audiences need to support them as characters. Lilly
Taylor delivers her performance as Andrea Perron well and truly grips us in
suspense during scares, something most horror film actors fail to do. The child
actors in this movie have little to no moments of actual character development,
but manage to make the most out of their screen time to deliver us some genuine
scares. In fact, the scariest bits of this movie occur whenever the child
actors are on screen, particularly Kyla Deaver who plays April, the youngest in
the Perron family who befriends an imaginary Rory (or is he imaginary?). Ron
Livingston on the other hand has the blandest written character in the entire
film but plays his character with enough likability as Roger Perron.
The scares in this
movie never fail to, well, scare. James Wan carefully crafts these suspenseful
sequences with slow build-up and eerie tracking shots (and music) that keep you
on the edge of your seat for most of the movie’s running time. And when the
scares do come, boy do they knock you off your seat. This film bases its scares
on the fear of the unknown in a very effective manner; by only giving us
glimpses of some of the movie’s most terrifying creatures/ entities, something
most horror films fail at by ultimately giving away too much of what they think
is scary. I would like to see people clapping hands after watching this movie,
because I sure ain’t. ‘The Conjuring’ is able to achieve the task of triggering
our imagination to go places that would scare us to bits and provide us with
fear of everyday things that, without watching a horror movie, would be in no
way scary. Combine that with some correctly timed comedy to relieve our senses
and you get pretty much everything you’d want in a good summer horror movie. This
movie is also an example of James Wan making the best use of his limited film
budget (The film was budgeted at only USD 13 million. Most movies are shot with
budgets over USD 200 million, so kudos to James Wan).
Another thing that
sets this horror film apart from others is that it has a heart at it’s centre,
one that revolves around the love parents have for their children and how far
they would go to protect them, which largely benefits the film especially
during it’s suspenseful climax. There are very few things to complain about in
‘The Conjuring’. It has a more-than-decent script, great performances all
around, creepy camera work and cinematography coupled with eerie, sometimes
terrifying music as well as a number of effective scares with a joke or two. I
have to say it is the scariest film of the year so far, unless James Wan
outdoes himself with ‘Insidious 2’ coming out in September. So get your
sleeping pills ready…
8.2 out of 10 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment