The Conjuring, very scary thrills-and a great film

Rare are scary films that are good.  More often than not it’s just violence, creative (sick) ways to murder and most recently torture porn.  The “Saw” type movies that were popular in the mid 00’s weren’t really scary, just had moments of tension.  The “found footage” movies that were trendy after that weren’t scary either, just mildly surprising.  The Conjuring is a throwback movie that is genuinely scary-without being bloody, has strong characters and succeeds in going past the genre and actually being a great film.   

This is a bit ironic too because the director of The Conjuring, James Wan, also directed Saw.  While that film was certainly the best one of the franchise it, to an extent, defined the horror genre for some people.  Some horror films are scary, some are not.   Rarer still are the scary movies that can be considered good even outside of the prism of their genre.

The Conjuring is the true story of a case that paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren worked on in the early 70’s.   They investigated hundreds of cases from the 50’s to the 80’s and legendary in the world of ghost hunters.

I squirmed inside too when I heard that The Conjuring was ‘based on a true’ story.  A movie doesn’t have to good, entertaining or even scary to be ‘based on a true story’.  Subconsciously it is more interesting to think that this really did happen; but the dramatic license taken by Hollywood with the stories stretches the stories credibility.

Having said all of that, The Conjuring is a great film.  It’s a scary, taut, quality film that exceeds expectations on every level.

I was concerned that it would be too scary-and it wasn’t.  Just like the pepperoncini that you think will be too hot, it’s not.  It’s just the right amount of spice, just as The Conjuring is the right amount of fright.

It is not gory.  It is rated R, but has very little bloody scenes and only one or two scenes of a specter with cuts on their arms.  When Wan asked the movie rating board MPAA why the film received an R rating, they replied “It’s just too scary”.

If it’s not gory, then how can a horror movie be any good?  The Conjuring is a great movie because of the characters.  We get to know a little bit about them, their personal dynamics and their history.  The Conjuring doesn’t skimp on the action; it moves a nice pace throughout and really starts to gallop once the audience meets the Perrons, the family that own the house in question.

There are moments of levity amidst the tension and about a dozen good quality scares that you won’t see coming.  Another reason the love The Conjuring is that it is not in 3D and that the film was made for about $13,000,000.  In a summer of multiple movies costing over $200 million, it’s refreshing to see a movie made for much less be so much better.