The reviews led me to buy a ticket....

Rating: 4/10 (24 July 2013)

...and this is the second time recently ("Cabin in the Woods" was the other) that reading about a film overrode my better judgment. What was true about both films is they were "different" than the usual horror film, and for some reason viewers here/reviewers in print thinks that makes them successful.
For one, horror films need characters that would behave similar to what an audience member would do. Wandering into a darkened boarded-up basement--more than once--where all manner of unnatural things/sounds occur becomes at first laughable and then tedious. Two, when new rules for demon possession have to be spelled out to us in anticipation for what's surely going to happen later in the film spoils the surprise. Three, the couple who "rescue" the family but also keep a room full of "possessed" objects in a special room in their own house was so ridiculous that whatever was bound to be the consequence had me cheering for the demons.
Finally a film that can make Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson dull, should be shelved permanently. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my comprehension, this film is getting rave reviews. If you want to see a truly scary movie, find Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" or Robert Wise's "The Haunting," and leave "The Conjuring" alone.