Another haunted house movie...

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2013)

Ghostly horror movies nowadays are really ultimately all kind of becoming the same. A person or family moves in or goes somewhere, and progressively paranormal stuff happens until something tragic happens to the mortals involved in the whole situation. Sadly, The Conjuring fits that template and accordingly lacks in a number of areas. First things first, I really like Lili Taylor and I really think that she is a far better actress than a lot of people credit her for. Lili plays the matriarch of the Perron family, Carolyn. She has clarity in her acting and everything she does seems so natural and organic. The patriarch of the family is Roger, played by Ron Livingston who you may remember from Office Space. This role is a big takeaway from many other roles he has done, and it is suiting because I think Ron wasn't the best choice for this role. Ron always has a sort of overly relaxed goofiness to him and it just doesn't fit well. Obviously I didn't know Roger Perron but I have a feeling that a father of 5 girls who is a trucker, would not be as relaxed as Ron seems to be all the time. The movie itself is shot very nicely, starting out bright, well lit and warm feelings. The house is often shown as a little dark, dusty and aged. The spooky spookiness really only reveals itself but once, maybe twice through the movie which is nice compared to other ghost flicks such as The Ring where you see the specter a lot. I don't want to give away the ending, but I think that it was really well done. James Wan, the director, also directed Saw and Insidious so he brings a wealth of talent and ability to The Conjuring. James is most definitely very capable of making the viewer feel the emotions as the family struggles in their battles with evil. - See more at: http://brmoments.com/2013/10/conjuring-review/