Disappointing

Rating: 7/10 (19 August 2013)

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie after the amazing "Insidious" got under my skin so well. I am sad to report that I did not find "The Conjuring" anywhere near as good. It didn't help that in the UK, so many critics gave rave reviews, telling how frightened they were. So I was really geared up for a good scary experience. But, if you've seen a few haunted house movies in the last decade, you won't be frightened by this.
I guess I should say that this review contains plot spoilers...
Things open well with a huge close up of the very nasty looking "Annabelle Doll" which I assumed was going to play a big role in what was about to unfold on screen. Sad to say that, although the 10 minute prologue used the doll with a certain degree of effectiveness, once the real story started it was all but abandoned for the remainder of the movie. What we had instead was your basic common or garden possessed house with the family undergoing all the trappings of a traditional movie haunting - being touched by unseen hands, being lured out of bed at night by strange noises, finding blocked up rooms galore, seeing sudden shock faces and figures looming out of dark corners at them, etc etc. This has all been done before, including some very similar creepy face make-up on the ghosts looking just like the ghoulish apparitions in "Insidious", and a rather unsuccessful attempt at turning a children's game of hide & clap into a scare was too similar to a similar game used to similar effect in "The Orphanage" from a few years back.
It's either me, or the techniques used here are not working any more. There were very very few true surprise scares in the film. And the scares there were seemed like re-runs of things that have been done before. What "Insidious" did so well was to show you things just long enough and just indistinctly enough to make you notice that something was wrong...in "The Conjuring", they didn't do this as well. Yes, suddenly seeing an ugly witch on top of a wardrobe is scary - but seeing the witch then jump on top of the unfortunate victim leading to an invisible wrestling match is not. Like in "The Haunting" (which this film has been likened to, due to some banging on doors by unseen forces), the scariest things are those that don't make themselves too obvious. The creepiest part of Insidious was when Rose Burn was hanging out her washing and thought she saw a little midget dancing about in the living room..."The Conjuring" blows this ambiguity by blasting you with big close ups of cackling faces far too often.
What I did like was the acting, the cast are all very good, especially Vera Farmiga as the medium. And like "Insidious" the film is far better during the first half when you don't know what's going on. It suffers - like "Insidious again" - from a finale which is all crash, bang and wallop and you have found out what force the family are fighting - it's better and scarier when you don't know.
So I am sorry to say the scares did not work for me this time. More of the Annabelle Doll would have spiced this up nicely - that thing was creepy as hell, but it was hardly ever on screen in the film at all. Disappointed all round.