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Good afternoon Minions!
Today we have another guest post from our good friend London McGuire! Enjoy!
After watching a great deal of horror movies over the years, my standards for a truly frightening film have been raised considerably. It becomes second nature to dismiss all of Hollywood’s attempts in the genre as meaningless reboots and blood-drenched farces. Perhaps that is why it seems impossible not to take notice of the few films which tell an original story worth hearing, that utilize the best elements of classic horror and are actually scary.
The Conjuring, directed by James Wan, had me squirming in my seat with fear and left me thinking about it long after the credits had ended. Wan earned his creep cred with films like 2004’s Saw and 2010’s Insidious. Both movies offered a level of technical sophistication and originality matched only by their gruesome thrills and scream-worthy scenes. The Conjuring adds another credit to his growing list of refreshingly well-crafted horror flicks.
Based on real events, The Conjuring breathes new life into the classic haunted house genre of horror movies. The narrative is framed through the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the most famous American paranormal investigators, or “ghost hunters”, of the 20th century. As the movie opens they are presenting a case involving a possessed doll named Annabelle to a crowd in an auditorium. Separately, the Perron family moves into an old farmhouse in rural Rhode Island in 1971 and begin experiencing strange and threatening phenomena. Noises, unexplained smells, and changes in temperature begin to manifest themselves at 3:07 each night.
Slowly the occurrences become more menacing and the terror is ratcheted up. The Perron’s eventually recruit the help of the Warrens to rid the house of whatever evil spirit has started to attack them. The rest of the story follows Ed and Lorraine as they work to gather enough evidence to warrant an official exorcism by the Catholic Church and to discover the truth behind what is happening in the farmhouse.
The film features an excellent cast including Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren, Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren, Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron and Ron Livingston as Roger Perron. Each character feels genuine and serves to heighten the film’s sense of dread with their emotional complexity. While Farmiga is superb as Lorraine, Taylor’s powerful performance as the terrified and tortured mother really propels the action.
The structure of the film is built around the traditional three act format and follows the three stages of possession, which are explained by the Warrens in the film. First is “Infestation” where the demonic entity makes contact and begins to manifest itself through small occurrences, like flickering lights and slamming doors. Next is “Oppression,” when the spirit actively harasses its chosen victims and begins to break them down mentally and physically. Last is “Possession” where the spirit or demon actually takes control of a person’s body and wreaks havoc.
The strongest element of The Conjuring is the fact that it seamlessly incorporates multiple horror movie genres into one. By breaking out of the traditional haunted house mold to include elements of possession, ghost and demonic films, The Conjuring is able to frighten on multiple levels. The film also exercises a certain amount of artistic restraint and offers real scares without the gratuitous violence and gore that directors rely on too often. Wan shows the audience just enough to make you jump out of their seat and then leaves the rest up to their imaginations.
The movie manages to blend both traditional elements of horror and a tasteful use of modern technology. The result is an atmosphere reminiscent of both The Exorcist (1973) and The Amityville Horror (2005), which was another of the Warren’s most famous real-life cases. The most significant thing The Conjuring has managed to do, however, is generate such a large amount of buzz around the horror genre itself. With the Halloween season fast approaching, hopefully The Conjuring offers a premonition of other great scary movies to come.
London McGuire is a freelance writer and contributor for
WeLoveTVMore.com. In addition to the horror and thriller genres, she
enjoys writing about sports, great food and anything related to
television or movies. Follow her on Twitter @londonmcguire.
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