A Film That Conjures Terror

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2020)

The movie The Conjuring, directed by James Wan and written by Chad Hayes, is one of the better known American horror films since 2013. It's a supernatural film, based on a true story in the 1970s about two well known paranormal investigators, Lorriane and Ed Warren, who were summoned to help the Perron family. They come to find out the dark background of the house and that something is latching on to the family. The Conjuring is a well written and produced film because of its key strengths it portrays throughout the movie.
The director, James Wan, has created other horror films such as Insidious and Saw that have also been some of the well known horror movies. Wan connects the stories of each fil together using the same paranormal investigators Lorriane (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) Warren. These movies show us that Vera and Patrick continue to be some of the best actors in the horror industry. Wan also uses many other techniques to get the audience involved in all his films such as: music, editing, photography and many more. First, the editing in this film is to make it seem like the stunts are actually happening. For example, in the famous scene of Nancy Perron, one of the daughters, getting dragged across the room from her hair by the evil spirit in the house. This scene demonstrates good film editing because it looks realistic as each strand of hair rises and she gets picked up from the ground. Another strength that was used was the music and soundtrack in the movie. Throughout the film, they use the high pitched tones and music to create anxiety and tension for the audience. I think how Wan used this technique was very well done because he let scenes go without the music and sounds then BOOM there is a musical jumpscare. As the movie goes on, we seem more ways to make the film as believable as it can like jumpscares.
Another key strength from this movie was the actual filming and composition through costume. The director uses many filming shots and angles such as a tracking used to follow the characters as they move around the scene. While using this, the filmer makes the camera look like its "hand-held" in many scenes throughout the movie, making it more realistic and like the audience with in the movie with them. In other movies, such as The Blair Witch Project, the director chose to use the point of view from a hand-held camera to make it seem like the audience is right there with the actors. Along with the filming, as I watched the movie, I noticed how the characters were dressed. Since the movie is based in the 1970s, the characters are wearing which is a form of composition making the movie more realistic because by having the children say words like 'far out' and 'groovy'. While James Wan uses these techniques, there is also and underlying theme to take away from this movie. Throughout the film, Lorriane and Ed Warren and the Perron family are stuck in this dark house with a dark presence. The key theme of this film is possession and using light and darkness to represent good and evil. For example, at the end of the movie when things are starting to turn out, there is this sudden change of filter and light to represent peace and happiness.
At the end of the film, I felt like it was a movie that was worth watching. From the techniques the director used to the actors bringing it all together. The Conjuring is a movie you won't forget after watching it. And who knows, maybe your family will run into the same dark trouble.