Film Review: The Conjuring

 

The Conjuring. Rated MA 15+ (strong horror themes and violence). 112 minutes. Directed by James Wan. Screenplay by Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes.

Verdict: A terrifically atmospheric spook fest that only stumbles at the finish line.

With his breakout film Saw (2004), made in collaboration with fellow Australian Leigh Whannell, Wan succeeded in stamping his torturous mark on the world of horror movies. The seemingly never-ending series of Saw films, which eventually concluded with the seventh instalment Saw 3D (2010), were smash hits at the box office – with Billy the sadistic puppet becoming one of the most instantly recognisable characters of the horror genre.

With The Conjuring, Wan and the Hayes brothers plough familiar horror movie territory – and the film’s overall effectiveness suffers as a result. By basing the film around Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and his wife Lorraine (Vera Farmiga), paranormal investigators who first found fame as a result of their investigation into the Lutz family home that would go on to become The Amityville Horror (1979), the film-makers ensure that comparisons come thick and fast.

What ensures that The Conjuring becomes something far more superior to the standard, haunted house shock/horror tale it constantly threatens to is Wan’s meticulous, beautifully-crafted direction, Julie Berghoff’s (Saw) superb production design, John Leonetti (The Woods) atmospheric cinematography, and the extraordinarily committed performances from a uniformly excellent cast.

Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under) is the stand-out as the wife and mother of five daughters struggling to hold it all together in the presence of evil forces determined to destroy her family, while the scene in which Joey King’s Christine thinks she sees a ghost behind her bedroom door, is as good as they come. If you are not hiding behind your hands during this scene, then you must be asleep.

The anxiety-inducing tension throughout three quarters of the film is unbearable, but as Berghoff’s brilliant house reveals its hideously terrifying depths, the script defaults to one derivative horror movie cliché – failing (unlike The Blair Witch Project or The Exorcist) to deliver the truly terrifying conclusion that was always well within its reach.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.