Familiar territory but still delivers fun results!

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2014)

Audiences enjoy being scared so much that they'll pay $12 to see crappy horror films the first weekend they open. They'll love "The Conjuring," except that it isn't crappy and is actually, you know, scary! We've seen ghost movies like this for years. We still can't get over the unpredictable fright of spirits popping out of nowhere and terrorizing people in some old house. Vera Farminga and Patrick Wilson play paranormal investigators named Ed and Lorraine Warren. Like every horror film trying to sell tickets, we see "based on a true story" stuck to the poster before entertaining the theater. I know I know, but come on! We're supposed to fooled! Ed and Lorraine investigate an old mysterious house in the middle of nowhere that a family moved into. What could go wrong? Why do horror movie characters always live in some creepy old house! The opening of "The Conjuring" is a little strange and laughable. The real beauty behind James Wan's directing is he makes it suspenseful instead of gory. We never know what demon with a fork in his butt is going to do next to these poor people. Even the credits at the end are terrifying! Wan takes a while for the horror to start kicking in. He makes tiny little clues that something is up, then delivers frightening sequences of scary fun. The one thing I would have taken out is the (SPOILER ALERT) exorcisms. Possessed people screaming their heads of is a little peculiar and not that scary. "The Conjuring" isn't too original or artistic, but it's pure fun to scream your bloody head off. Wan is full of suspense and terror in his directing and he'll keep you hungry for more. See it in a big group. Boo!