So when Wan’s newest venture into the world of scary flicks
was announced I was extremely excited. If he can knock a movie out of the park
like he did previously, where he showed off a significant amount of growth as a
storyteller, The Conjuring was going
to be awesome.
And it was.
Based on the true story of a husband and wife team of
paranormal investigators, The Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), who
take on the case of a haunting that has turned violent toward the victims,
the Perrons (Ron Livingston, Lili
Taylor, Shanley Caswell, Hayley McFarland, Joey King, Mackenzie Foy and Kyla
Deaver).
If there’s one thing James Wan has certainly learned over
the course of his career it is how to properly build suspense and a sense of
absolute dread. It’s in overdrive for the entirety of The Conjuring. This flick kept me on the edge of my seat to the
point that I was tapping my feet against the floor in anticipation of something
to happen. 95% of the scares are effective and most are not of the “boo”
variety. The aspect I liked the best was that Wan used the audience’s
expectations against themselves by setting up cliché situations where any other
generic horror flick would toss in a cheap scare and build up the suspense and
then that stinger never comes. But then a few moments later a totally different
kind of jolt occurs that takes you completely by surprise. Everything is
expertly choreographed and handled. Smart work there, James!
The other area I will say he’s greatly improved is in his
ability to direct his actors. Each film has seen some progression, but as far
as I’m concerned he has finally hit the mark with The Conjuring. Each and every single cast member is phenomenally
awesome in their role, be it one of the girls from the opening scene involving
the Annabelle doll to the youngest daughter of the Perron family. There is not
one performance that I can find at fault, and that’s saying something truly
spectacular for a horror movie where the acting is never a high point.
I have to admit, I was worried when I saw that 90s indie
queen Lili Taylor was cast in this film. Back in the day she was amazing in
each and every low budget flick she starred in, from I Shot Andy Warhol to Four
Rooms to The Addiction. However,
whenever she crossed over to big budget Hollywood films her talent seemed to
disappear. Just look at her in The
Haunting, Ransom or Public Enemies. Goddamn did she suck in
those (Pecker too, and that was an
indie!). I dreaded her turn as the tortured mother, Carolyn Perron, but in the
end she wowed me just like she did when I first saw her in Mystic Pizza. You can tell she put her all into the part and the
movie benefits greatly from it, especially in the final act of the film.
Patrick Wilson, who starred in Wan’s Insidious and will reprise his role in the upcoming Insidious: Chapter 2, seems to be right
at home in these types of films. I never liked him all that much after his
craptastic performance in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, but I began to
warm up to him beginning with Hard Candy.
He is great here as ghostbuster Ed Warren, and when teamed up with the
phenomenal Vera Farmiga, who is one of my all-time favorite actresses (ever see
her performance in Running Scared?),
as his wife Lorraine, the chemistry they share leaps off the screen and just
grabs you.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ron Livingston, who
is primarily a comedic actor, took on such a demanding part such as Roger
Perron. He manages to pull it off thanks to some great chemistry (I’m thinking
Wan cast this film based on that fact alone) with Lili Taylor and the young
actresses who play his daughters (I’m telling you, Joey King is going to be the
next Dakota Fanning).
The script by Chad and Carey Hayes moves at a steady clip,
is never boring and features a large amount of characterization for a movie
that will be dismissed as just another run-of-the-mill horror flick. While I
did like the characters, I do feel that some of their developments resembled
events from other scary movies of the past, most notably Poltergeist. There are some ideas ripped right from that script, be
it the family no longer wanting to sleep upstairs and campimg out in the
living room to the youngest girl being drawn into her closet. Sure not all of
these developments turn out the way they did in that masterpiece, but the fact
that they were so close irked me a bit. The same goes for the Annabelle doll,
which is part clown doll from Poltergeist
and part Jigsaw doll from Saw.
Thankfully that development never went the route I figured it would have because
that would have been a deal breaker for me.
I won’t ruin any of the scares, surprises or twists that
make this movie as frightening and awesome as it is, so I will just say that
not only does The Conjuring contain an ample amount of the spooky stuff
audiences want nowadays, but it also features some of the best acting I’ve seen
all summer and some of the slickest and most restrained directing from James
Wan yet. It’s well made, doesn’t rely on gore or violence (why it’s rated R I
have no idea as it is virtually bloodless and features no harsh language) and
knows exactly what it takes to scare an audience as efficiently as possible.
This is an awesome flick that got under my skin and stayed
there for its two hour run time. If you want to be scared, this is the flick for
you. I hope Wan and company make a sequel since there’s plenty more stories
about the Warren’s paranormal investigations. I mean, did you know they were the
ones who originally investigated the Amityville haunting? Now that would be the
shit! I am now eagerly awaiting Wan’s Insidious
sequel and an excited to see how he handles the big budget franchise picture Fast and Furious 7 next summer.
4 out of 5
Nice review Chris. The horror genre's not my favorite of them all, but I can have fun with it when it's done right. Perfect example right here.
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