The Conjuring, the latest from Saw and Insidious director James Wan, is a throwback in many ways, presenting a classic ghost story, set in the early 1970s, investigated by paranormal researchers determined to rescue a family from an aggressive haunting. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are Lorraine and Ed Warren, respectively, who give lectures on their experiences with demonic spirits and ghosts. They are approached by Carolyn Perron (Lili Taylor), a mother of five who, with her husband Roger (Ron Livingston), have been terrorized by odd noises, strange bruises and even some phantom forms. Hesitant to draw his wife into another investigation after a recent exorcism affected her deeply, Ed agrees to help the family and begins his exploration of the house’s spirits and history.
Wan has certainly mastered his craft and the direction in The Conjuring is some of the best in any horror films in recent years. From the camera movement to the sound design, the technical aspects of this movie are top-notch, highlighting some really effective gags with confident timing. Likewise, the performances in The Conjuring are rock solid, especially from Vera Farmiga and Ron Livingston as characters on opposite sides of the belief spectrum as things in the house take a distinctly supernatural turn.
Despite the irreproachable direction and performances, the script is fairly routine, and the dialog feels a little too on-the-nose at key points in the film, but it’s a fairly minor quibble for a ghost story that does a very good job of producing some nice scares. Still, one wishes that there had been some inventiveness in the film beyond the references to films past, but it does twist these references in fun ways for the most part. The one exception to this is the use of a possessed doll, shown early in the film, which fell a bit flat for me.
Despite the hype surrounding the film, much of which is deserved, I found myself rolling my eyes a bit in the third act, which gets a bit silly. For fear of giving away too much, I won’t say what, exactly, was silly, but there are similarities between this film and a classic horror film from the ‘70s (which you cannot miss) that remind you of how well that film did it, and how The Conjuring does not quite meet that bar of believability.
This brings me to my biggest problem with the film, which is an entirely personal one. The movie begins and ends with assertions that this is based on a true story, Depending on one’s belief system, this may be plausible, but it took me out of the experience in a fundamental way, which is unfortunate. Had the film simply presented its story, I could have been more apt to forgive the third act’s baroque machinations, but by asserting that this is somehow a thing that could have happened, especially given the fantastical elements of the film, torpedoes the suspension of disbelief. Never mind the fact that the work of Ed and Lorraine Warren has been largely debunked, and has even been described as predatory in their relationships with homeowners, a ghost story is just that, a story, and any assertions of veracity are patently ridiculous. Again, this is a subjective reaction and for a vast majority of filmgoers, the aspects of the film that most distracted me from experiencing it as storytelling are little to no factor. But any film’s impact, like any other work of art, ultimately is viewed from the prism of the audience’s experiences and beliefs and, for this one, some needless claims detract from the overall experience.
Still, I would recommend the film to horror fans, especially those who enjoy seeing a ghost story done with technical success and some very nice nods to the films from which it borrows. There are some very great moments to be found in the early goings and, if this is where Hollywood is going in terms of horror films, I’m all for it.