Phenomenal horror brought to us by the new King of the genre

Rating: 9/10 (9 August 2013)

The Conjuring opens to a long, eerie shot of a sinister looking doll, who's name we find out to be Annabelle. A short sequence revolving around this doll introduces us to the protagonists of the movie; real life paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) Warren. Ed & Lorraine travel across the country presenting their work to various universities, alongside visiting people's homes who believe that their house is the site of demonic activity, which is usually dismissed by simple logic. As advertised however, The Conjuring focuses on one case "too disturbing to be told...until now."
After a title sequence that literally made all the hairs on my neck stand up, the Perron family are introduced. Moving into a new home, everything seems normal until strange occurrences make them believe something is awry, and after many disturbances unsettle the family the Mother Carolyn (Lili Taylor) seeks out the Warrens' help. This gives us a fairly average plot on which countless terrifying moments can be built upon.
It's important to know that The Conjuring doesn't really try do anything new. Numerous 'haunting' movies have been released recently, but none have made me as scared as The Conjuring. Director James Wan (who also directed such films as Saw and Insidious) has such an effective method of shocking audiences with violence and terror, but The Conjuring features almost no gore or violence or foul language, it instead relies on pure fear to make you feel incredibly uneasy. Of course there are a few 'jump-scares' which have become the norm in current horror movies, but there are so many other occasions where a scene is drawn out to a painful level of tension that had me almost hiding behind my hands, all accompanied by a sinister soundtrack which adds huge amounts to the on- screen sequences.
In a horror movie, it is important to care about the protagonists, otherwise we don't fear for their lives when in danger. Luckily then, actors such as Patrick Wilson and Lili Taylor portray their characters to such an exceptional degree that they are so likable I didn't want anything bad to happen to them, which is a foolish thing to hope for in a movie like this, but something they should be commended for.
My only real negative with the movie is that towards the end, a lot of things are revealed which may have been more effective if left to the imagination. Maybe it's just me, but I find things to be a lot scarier when a face is not put to whatever it is haunting a family. Small glimpses are caught of the apparition throughout, and in my opinion it should have remained at that.