A familiar plot elevated by good directing, likable characters and authentic scares

Rating: 8/10 (7 April 2016)

The Conjuring stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, real-life paranormal investigators in one of their most frightening cases. This is one of the scariest movies I've seen in recent years.
James Wan's work on the Saw and Insidious franchises showed what he could bring to the horror genre and The Conjuring has cemented his role as a crucial horror movie director. At its base, The Conjuring is the haunted house movie cliché. While we've seen this done to death, James Wan brings in new ideas, old methods and great direction, not often seen in scary movies. By using practical methods rather than CGI, we get more authentic scares. Wan is also great at building tension. Other than a couple of cheap jump scares (the first music box mirror sequence), most of the scares are well deserved.
Another aspect of the film that makes it stand out is its cinematography. It has some of the best set up shots and scenes done in recent horror movies. It also feels very seventies in its style, a welcomed change to the uninspired found footage plague.
The score contributes a lot to the suspense of the film. It is very eerie, macabre and almost industrial. It's great during scenes of both silence and chaos. It does suffer from what most scary movies do nowadays which is turn up the bass and torture orchestral instruments to scare the living crap out of you, rather than trust the visuals will. It is fitting sometimes but I feel it is overused. The soundtrack includes some great tracks of the seventies which compliment the vintage atmosphere.
Horror films are not known for award-winning acting or likable characters. That's another way The Conjuring stands out. Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron does an outstanding job during the latter part of the movie. I've not seeing such a deranged performance since The Exorcist. Everyone else does a good job playing their roles. Even the children hold their own, another rare occurrence in scary movies.
SPOILER WARNING
While The Conjuring has a very solid plot, it is often predictable and clichéd. The young child befriending a spirit, the skeptical father, and the exorcism are all very common in movies like this, but The Conjuring does a far moreover compelling job than its contemporaries. It has a typical structure, with a slow first half focusing on the characters and small incidents that start build up. This is where most scary movies fail for me, they fail to make me care for the characters. I care for the Perron family so when everything starts going down, I'm invested. The last 20-30 minutes of the film becomes a disturbing, nail biting race against time that had me on the edge of my seat. It manages to keep surprising you with constant scares and frightening imagery until its resolution.
The Conjuring is must watch for any horror movie fan. It tells a familiar story but great directing, impressive cinematography, likable characters, practical effects and truly frightening moments make this an example to follow for horror movies to come.
8/10