Haunted

Rating: Null/10 (7 October 2016)

Loosely based on real events, this horror movie from 'Saw' director James Wan focuses on a house that a family begins to suspect is haunted and two paranormal researchers who they ask to perform an exorcism. The film does not hold a candle to the original 'Exorcist' movie from 1973, but it is a creepy experience all the same with Wan resorting to relatively few jump scares and precious little in the way of CGI; much of the horror is implied from the young daughters' reactions or characters screaming in the distance, with only the exorcism itself loaded with special effects. Wan also does well capturing the flavour of the 1970s with appropriate hairstyles, set decoration and language, etc. Refreshingly different as 'The Conjuring' may be from most contemporary horror movies, the basic story is still no great shakes; much of it feels like it has been done several times before with lots of run-of-the-mill haunted house elements. The novelty is meant to be the evil spirit attaches itself to its victims and haunts them rather than the house, but we rarely get a sense of this (the finale aside) as clocks stopping, strange sounds, figures in the shadows etc are all standard haunted house tropes. The cutting between the family and the paranormal specialists early on also tends to break up the tension. Whatever the case, Wan certainly crafts the movie well. His camera is often mobile, tracking and sliding eerily around the house, and there is a great scene in which one daughter peeks under the bed and the camera peeks along with her, even turning upside down.