Better Than Any Recent Horror Movie

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2013)

Hide and clap or clap and seek, whatever that game was it made me never want to play any version of hide and seek ever again. The Conjuring did something a horror movie hasn't been able to do in a long time. No, not scare the hell out of me but it didn't make me laugh. This movie was one of the scariest movies I have seen in a very long time. The jump scares were there but necessary and not as predictable. The story of the Warrens is one I have never heard about but the supernatural and demon possession is something I sort of believe in, and that made the movie feel more real. I really enjoyed this movie, let's see why.
A family is struggling on money and buys a house in the country off a bank auction. Little do they know, this house is haunted and has an awful past. When they bought the house you would think they would do the research on the history of the house but that is just me. From the mysterious leg tugs to the creepy doll that moves on its own, this movie knows how to scare. The terror and horror in this movie is overwhelming and lives up to the hype. It takes a lot to scare me in a movie and I have seen scarier movie there were many different ways this movie had an edge.
One of the first things I noticed was that all the characters looked pale. The opening scene is a side story with a few girls who are being terrorized by an old doll. Not only was the doll creepy but the poor girls looked terrible. There was no pigmentation in their face. In fact no character, even the Warrens had much color in their face. All the clothes the characters wore were dull colors and they were not vibrant. Almost every scene was dark. Even when the sun was out, it was cloudy and there were shadows everywhere. That was something I noticed early and it was the same throughout the entire movie and it made the movie scarier.
The scariest scene is easily when the mother plays hide and clap or whatever that game was called. Yes, I was too scared to remember, okay, don't judge me. Everything in this scene worked. The scared mother made the scare more believable and the acting she did. The music blended in well. The idea of turning on the lights is used a lot but it always works. She is running around the house trying to find the ghost and the jumps and spooks were great. The theater jumped and screamed at the end of the scene which ended in darkness and terror.
The major flaw in most horror movies is the acting. The acting in this movie, however, is actually pretty good. The family that is haunted has five kids and a few of them are stereotypical but they all do a good job. They each have a scene or two where they shine in their moment of terror. If they are scared then the audience is scared and the movie works. Seeing one of the youngest daughters sleep walk and bang her head against the closet was creepy and of course the entire movie starts with normal occurrences that are creepy and quickly elevate.
Was this movie perfect? No, there were some scenes where the movie slowed down and got a little out of hand. There are scenes that are supposed to be scary but aren't and they were hard to believe. The key to a movie like this is the backstory and the "based on a true story" gimmick. The Warrens are real people who were paranormal investigators but there were parts of this movie where this could not have possibly been real. There were times where I was taken out of the movie because a girl was being dragged by her hair because of a ghost or something. It is hard to make a scene like that work because it looks silly.
The characters of the Warrens themselves were unexpected. The movie focused on them just as much as it did on the family that was being haunted. The Warren's have a daughter of their own which was unexpected and she gets involved in a creepy scene as well. They had really good chemistry but their acting was a little weak at times. The Conjuring was a good time and I had fun with the movie but I don't think I would see it again. I think it only has the real effect once.
Overall The Conjuring is a very good horror movie. Is that really saying much? Well, you tell me. I'm not a huge fan of horror movies. They are usually poorly made and cheap, but this one was different. It didn't rely on jump scares and cheesy tricks, but rather clever movements with the camera and limited CGI. The presentation of this movie was great and the writing clever. The backstory to this movie interesting and I bought it. I believe things like this happen but the movie needs to exaggerate it to make money and a good movie. I usually hate horror movies and laugh at them but this one was different. I was legitimately scared and I had fun. The scare wasn't constant and it wasn't there long but it was there. Some movies the scare is always there but in this movie it was here in bursts. For being the scariest movie I have seen in a long time it gets the WillyT Scaredy Pants Award. That's my horror genre rating so it also gets the WillyT Recommendation.