Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Conjuring

(2013) ****
Harrisville RI, 1971.  A family moves into an old house with a dark history, and almost immediately it becomes apparent that there are malevolent forces present.  When they consult with paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, they find out that the situation may be even worse than they thought.

The Conjuring gave me that sweaty-palm, tense feeling that we all hope for in October.  The characters were fairly believable, likeable, and well-acted, and the paranormal researchers had the refreshing ability to refrain from classifying every squeaky board as a ghost.  Apparently the plot is based on a true story, but whether you buy that or not, it's a damn solid and effective haunted house movie.

5 comments:

Catfreeek said...

I actually liked this as well although it has been subject to mixed reviews. There are some genuine scares in the film and that is a tough thing to find in this day and age.

Btw, the old woman they show attending the Warren's lecture is the real Loraine Warren who still resides in Connecticut where by appointment you can tour the Warren's museum of haunted items which is in their basement.

JPX said...

I thought the first half of The Conjuring had some game but like 'Insidious' (same director) I lost interest with the direction the story took. I thought the cinematography and acting was excellent. Field trip to the real house?

Catfreeek said...

I'm in, let's go!

Crystal Math said...

There seems to be an oddly high percentage of horror movies taking place on the east coast. Good thing I'm comfortable sitting here in Cali!

I've seen this advertised a lot on Netflix and will have to give it a viewing at some point.

Octopunk said...

Hmm, that's a good point Crystal.

I was just now trying to find Sinister, which I thought maybe was the same director but it's just the same producers. I remembered because they say it on the poster, which really pushed this new Single Word Title trend "From the producers of INSIDIOUS comes SINISTER." We should go buy the domain names of other ominous words, like, uh... "Ominous."

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...