Review of The Conjuring (2013) by Josiah M — 22 Sep 2018

Existing far above the admittedly low standards set by the archetypical modern horror film, The Conjuring, a.k.a., Doors Are The Enemy, stirs up its audience the old-fashioned way. The most terrifying moments, and some genuinely are terrifying, are the quite moments, when the camera moves slowly and you're on the edge of your seat in anticipation of what might scare you, not jumping up in the air because a character popped up out of nowhere and the musical score included a surprise stinger.

The case itself is fascinating, and the film is shot from a sceptical point of view, where a family with no belief in or affinity with the supernatural world are forced to deal with something very sinister.

So rather than immediately calling 'Satan' on the occurrences, they try and address it in a normal way, immediately making their characters more relatable, and so we're with them when they call in the Warrens to try and sort things out.

Despite coming to us from the Director who brought us the Saw franchise, and Furious 7, there's a surprising amount of restraint and maturity in dealing with the subject matter. At times it has difficulty distinguishing itself from other genre classics such as Poltergeist and The Exorcist.

In fact at one point I said aloud something along the lines of 'Hey, that's the girl from The Exorcist.' But familiarity aside, The Conjuring is exactly the kind of movie that other horror films should aspire too.

Creepy, suspenseful and full of characters we actually care about, it delivers its scares in the best, most effective ways.