Review of The Conjuring (2013) by Ljhayes — 14 Aug 2013

If you're looking for a standard horror flick to watch on a night in then this will do the job well enough but for the most part it's the same cliche horror film that's been done to death a hundred times over. There aren't many original ideas to be found here and most of the 'scary' moments are just jack in the box jumps.

There are quite a few characters in it (a family of seven, two ghostbusters, a police sheriff and some guy with cameras) and none of them have that much depth or personality to the point where most of the cast seem unnecessary. Also some of the acting is pretty bad, particularly the father of the family. When the child actors are upstaging the adults then that's not a good sign.

One thing that I keep seeing in horror films is pianos! Why does every haunted house have a piano? And why to ghosts always feel the need to play it? I want to see a horror film where they find a dusty old Gibson in the basement and in the middle of the night everyone is woken up by the opening riff to sweet child of mine. It might not be scary at least it would be something that hasn't bee done before unlike pretty much everything in this film.

Overall this might be a good time sink if you're bored at home but if you're a horror fan then this isn't going to stay with you for long.