Pass the Popcorn review

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 2013)

James Wan is probably the most famous young horror director. He was involved in the Saw saga, directing two and producing all of the movies. He's also famous for including a specific trademark in all of his horror movies – that trademark being creepy evil dolls. But The Conjuring is supposed to differ from his previous works, since it's based on the true story of the Perron family and Ed and Lorraine Warren, the latter being famous paranormal investigators who worked on the Amytiville Horror case, among many others. The Conjuring was extremely well received, which is kind of a surprise, as new horror movies are not generally known for being good.
In 1971, the Perron family – Roger, Carolyn and their five daughters – moves into an old farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. On their first night there, they discover a secret cellar, and while sleeping, an invisible force pulls one of the daughters' leg. In the morning, they find their dog – who didn't want to enter the house – dead. The next days, more strange things happen: doors open on their own, clapping can be heard when there's nobody there etc. Frightened, Carolyn (Lily Taylor) convinces Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) to come and inspect the house. The couple discovers a malevolent spirit attached to the Perron family and decide to look for evidence in order to request an exorcism from the Church.
The Conjuring isn't entirely faithful to the true story – for example, the Perrons lived in the haunted house 10 years, while the movie makes it look like just a couple of weeks, and they have reported the presence of good spirits, too. But that's not really relevant, especially because most people will find it much more interesting to speculate whether the spirits/demons are real at all (it happens with every movie of this kind). And also because The Conjuring is a great movie. It's not a typical jump scare plus murderous demon kind of horror, which is excellent because it really works hard to scare you, mainly by creating atmosphere (unlike the jump scares that just abuse human instincts). In the end, you find you were mostly afraid of nothing, because you expected something to appear but it never did. This is the movie's best feature, since all the other scares, featuring visible spirits, aren't quite as scary. I also appreciated the fact that the movie's following two timelines – the Warrens' and the Perrons'. The Warrens' especially adds a lot of drama to the movie, which makes it very relaxing from time to time, but also lets you connect with the characters a lot. Too many times do we see a horror movie in which people die before we've even learned their names.
The acting is very good, too, especially the children's – who all look genuinely afraid when they have to – and even though there are no famous actors in the movie. Finally, the use of soundtrack was amazing, as a dramatically loud sound was rarely heard when something scary occurred: again, the makers of the movie didn't focus on humans' natural, instinctive responses in order to create fear. Now, about the things I didn't quite like. The movie starts out with the Annabelle doll story: a doll inhabited by a demon was taken by the Warrens to their home after they had performed an exorcism on it. There is absolutely no reason to start the movie off with that story, since it isn't linked in any way to the Perron family, either in the movie or in real life. Still, this start is interesting and creepy, and I admit it seems reasonable to use that story to explain what the Warrens do for a living. Moreover, the beginning is not as bad as the ending of the movie. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that all the build-up during the movie doesn't quite pay off and everything is kind of underwhelming. Nevertheless, The Conjuring is a very good horror movie that will intrigue and scare – and maybe even make you keep the lights on at night.
Rating: 7/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.com/