James Wan’s The Conjuring, starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as supernatural investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, has spawned cinema’s most successful horror franchise to date (in terms of monetary gain – $2.2 billion in profits against a mere $280 million budget). There are three main Conjuring movies in which the Warrens investigate various supernatural phenomena, especially those involving possessed objects. Two sets of spin-offs – the Annabel series and The Nun series – bring the total number of films to eight since the first Conjuring in 2013.
Buy The Conjuring 4K UHDIn 1971, Roger and Carolyn Perron (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) move their family consisting of five daughters and a dog to an old farmhouse in Rhode Island. The dog refuses to enter the house. Carolyn wakes every morning with new, inexplicable, bruises on her body. All the clocks in the house stop working each morning at 3:07 am. The dog is found dead outside in the grass. The family find a boarded-up cellar which will be the scene of a couple mildly frightening moments, but for the most part, the cellar is there to have ominous shadows. All of this is enough supernatural phenomena for Carolyn to seek out the Warrens and beg for their help. The Warrens insist that there is usually a natural explanation for such “hauntings” but agree to visit and see if they can be of any help.
The Warrens have a two-pronged attack. First, they set up literal bells and whistles, cameras, and other ephemera that appear to be attempts at gathering evidence for a Catholic-Church-sanctioned exorcism. This seems like a waste of time because the moment Lorraine Warren enters the farmhouse, she knows that a demon has latched itself onto the family and even moving away will no longer be of any help. What more evidence is needed? According to the Church – photos, which the Warrens are able to secure. Second, they delve into the background of the farmhouse and find that a witch and satanist used to live there, and back in 1863, she sacrificed her week-old baby to Satan at 3:07 am. We never get an explanation as to why the demon didn’t choose one of the previous owners to “latch onto.”
Ed and Lorraine Warren were a real couple who called themselves paranormal investigators, were devoutly Catholic, and believed they were doing God’s work by helping people who were being pestered by demonic forces. The Conjuring wants to push the idea that this is a true story; unfortunately, the more it insists on truth, the less believable it becomes. There are a couple decent scares throughout. There are some great moments with a spinning, mirrored, music box that will “show you a man in the mirror” when it stops. This leads to two or three chilling moments, but is definitely overdone.
The Conjuring mostly works because of the actors. Livingston and Taylor do an excellent job of being both scared and confused at the same time. Wilson and Farmiga help us to think they are genuinely in love and that they, at least, truly believe they are interacting with the supernatural. On the other hand, the story feels familiar, and the last half is taken up by an exorcism that borrows heavily from previous excellent films involving exorcisms. The Conjuring is a fun film that points toward good things to come from the future of the franchise. Fingers crossed that the other films find ways to get our hearts racing.
Bonus Features:
- Scariest of Them All (NEW) – cast and creators discuss favorite scares from the series.
- Reflections on The Conjuring (NEW) – cast and crew reflect on their experiences creating the film.
- The Conjuring: Face-to-Face with Terror – the Perron family, who lived in their farmhouse with demons discuss a decade of horror living with evil spirits.
- A Life in Demonology – Ed and Lorraine Warren talk all sorts of bullshit about their collection of haunted and unholy relics. One thing that can be said about the Warrens – they believe every word they say.
- Scaring the “@$*%” Out of You – Director James Wan discusses the types of scenes that always seem to scare audiences.
