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The Conjuring
(2013)
5.25
1

Plot/Story

5.00

Characters

7.00

Acting

7.00

Cinematography

7.00

Production Design

5.00

Sound

5.00

Execution

4.00

Emotional Impact

2.00

Overview: 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.

Director: James Wan

Release Date: 2013-07-18

Genres: Horror Thriller


5.25
5
7
7
7
5
5
4
2

Full Review Page

James Wan knows his audience and The Conjuring will probably satisfy that audience; I don't believe that it will check off everything on his audience's lists, but they won't be disappointed. As a film though, there are far too many uses for me to overlook. Wan does some pretty cool stuff with his camera work, but towards the beginning, there are three or four sequences where the camera bobs around and the angle rolls. It's not one of the times where we are seeing something the characters recorded; it's just a regular shot, except that it looks like it was filmed on boat, rolling with the waves. The acting is pretty good for a horror movie (probably because the four main characters are actual dramatic actors and not Instagram models they hired via Skype), except for the younger child actors. There is some terrible CGI (mainly the bird scene in the later half) and clear ADR. The biggest issue is the story. The validity of the "Based on a True Story" line isn't relevant to the actual quality of the movie, so I won't address it. The Conjuring is a very simple story that they needlessly try to complicate by introducing irrelevant details and shoehorning in openings for spinoff properties. The main story thread is the cliche of "family moves into house and it turns out that it's haunted" and continues to follow every other cliche they could think of. One of the first scenes is the "Dogs can sense paranormal stuff" cliche and we quickly move into scenes where ghosts do things that don't make sense in the world of the movie. Why would a ghost manifest hands to hold out and clap together (can ghosts even clap?) when the character can't see anything anyway. There are so many times where the ghosts do things that are going to have no effect on the people, but only exist to get a cheap jump scare. They present Lorraine Warren as a medium and she quickly establishes that there are like seven different, unrelated ghosts in the house. Okay, I guess that's fine; it's your movie, but most of them are inconsequential to the story and (again) only exist to provide opportunities for more cheap jump scares. The entire "fear factor" of the movie is the anticipation of jump scare that you know are going to happen. None of them are surprising and, in fact, I was actually surprised more often when they didn't do the jump scare I though they were setting up. There are plot holes, pointless scenes, and lame dialog, and they still try and play the movie 100% serious. You can't have a movie overflowing with cliches, plot holes, terrible CGI, cheese and goofy scenes and tell us the movie is serious business. They show us the Annabelle doll twice (clearly to set-up its solo series) and expect us to believe that people had kept a doll with blood drawn on and scars carved into its creepy, pale face. They have the Warrens essentially tell us the issue in the house is a demon, but quickly move on to it being a ghost they have to get rid off. Fine, but what about the other ghosts. The youngest child has a new friend that no one else can see (because cliche), what about him? All the other ghosts and such just get pushed aside after they pick their "big bad". The other ones are just momentary distractions that offer a couple of jump scares. They don't even get creative with the jump scares, which is made worse because there is never anything else to be afraid of. The house is old (they do a good job making everything authentic to the time the movie takes place), but it's not particularly creepy. I never had the sense of dread a horror movie is supposed to give you; it only has lazy jump scares. The actors did good and James Wan's directing gives The Conjuring an artistic flair, but the script sucks, the cameramen for the first half were bad, and the rest is lazy.

By : Greg Mueller | Date : 4 years ago




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