Which is scarier!?!!?: A house full of girls or a house full of ghosts? Or my review of The Conjuring

Rating: 8/10 (10 November 2013)

"The Conjuring" is a... well, is a great film. Much like my review on "Elysium" I was going to say "is a great horror film" but unlike my reserved genre labeling holding back my opinion of praising that film as a "science fiction film", this hesitation at such labeling as simply a great 'horror film' is actually in praise of the movie here. Horror films can so easily be dismissed onto the pile of shock gore fest splatter films and the like, that when a real well made scary film comes along, it really does stand out.
I read some other review I don't remembers who's but they pointed out the first thing I too noticed. There is an opening prologue of sorts, with it's stark title card, revealing a previous haunting that made this movie have all the earmarks of the aspirations of making a movie to the likes of "The Exorcist". While it's fails to deliver on the scale of that horror epic that fact it comes close to that cinematic high mark in terror, is something to commend indeed.
Compared to a movie like James Wan's previous excellent Insidious which dealt in parallel universes and plains of existence etc this one was shackled by "based on" or "inspired by" or whatever they framed this one with the "true events" setting. And while that gray area or "dark" gray area, if you must, may extend to a lot of leeway in the levitation people and objects etc... there are some things you just want to say are true for sure, like this family had five girls ranging from pre-school to high school age. In fact, the person I saw this with and I were humorously trying to keep track, when they had a shot of four of the girls heading to school and we thought we had it... until we were reminded of the pre-school girl! Any sane scriptwriter would have lessened the madness of the reality in this scenario!
But like when the paranormal specialists are brought in along with a local officer the actual mayhem of a simple breakfast among such a crowd was almost comical in presenting this as a real situation. But any comic relief or quite moments were certainly offset with real scares and jumps.
As film progresses you actually find time to separate out the girls, understand the foreboding of the paranormal specialist and her history, and the shear stamina of the parents played by Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston who obviously had their hands full even before they bought the to-good-to-be true countryside deal of a house from the bank.(When you buy something "as is" in an auction you're probably hoping for some simple water damage not a house full of ghosts...) Anyway the way the interaction of all these people happen really draws you into an investment to liking these people even the paranormal investigators Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson illicit great empathy for them and all the children actresses, and so when one girl starts sleep walking, or the covers are pulled off another, or one sees a little boy in the mirror of a toy, the creepiness factor really builds.
Now eventually things build from the simple scare of a night gowned girl suddenly passing in the frame, to objects and people actually being thrown around the house, plus there's "The Sixth Sense" like visions people have of past suicides and such, that build up to the real scare of the mother slowly becoming possessed by the evil presence that was supposedly the start of all the others.
And while it's true most of the chills and thrills are all done without any blood and gore I suppose it's the gruesome possession and exorcism that really give it it's R rating.
The idea of "specialists" seems to have garnered weight ever since the creepy little lady in Poltergeist, for instance, even though the investigators Patrick and Vera's characters are based on real "investigators" Ed and Lorraine Warren that wasn't important to films like the original "The Amityville Horror" movie even though the same two were involved in the case because at that time the only "specialist" most people associated with evil in the movies would be a priest.
Even though this movie supposedly took place around the same time as original "The Exorcist" that movie treated science as baffled and completely inadequate with what cursed little Regan. Whereas this movie incorporates the sympathies of science to assure the couple that they "aren't going crazy". With investigative tools of the time: automatic triggering camera, temperature changing sensors, and super sensitive audio equipment etc.. no infrared or ectoplasm thingamajigs of modern day, but you get the idea. But even here, of course, logic, science and all that tries to give the family foothold on sanity are subjected to pure evil that must be cast out with old fashion exorcism
The possessed devil doll from the prologue tying in with the Warren's daughter had some true suspension and horror to it, but was almost was like Wan had bitten off a bit more than he could chew unlike the mom who bit off a piece of the police officer's cheek causing them to throw sheet over her head..ha!comic relief So even though the daughter subplot was a stretch, and the ending is a bit extreme in it's chaotic deliverance from evil for the family as children are trapped beneath floor boards or in the car or I forget where all, the unrivaled suspense that got us there to the turmoil and whirlwind of an ending is truly terrifying and extremely well done.