Wow, a brilliant modern day horror for once.

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2013)

OK so I am disappointed every time I watch a modern day thriller/horror. They are always badly scripted with plenty of unfilled gaps in the story, totally predictable and they recycle material over and over again from the classics such as: Scream, Halloween, Poltergeist and Friday the 13th. A typical detail used in today's horror films is the line 'based on a true story' which you know is totally bo**ocks. However, after doing a bit of research into this film I was soon to discover that the Warrens, the paranormal investigators in the film, were and are actually real people that experienced many well documented paranormal activities such as the Amityville Horror and the haunting in Connecticut (both now made into average films). So for me The Conjuring is a wonderful surprise. The acting is brilliant and well lead by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the use of make-up and prosthetics over CGI adds extra realism to the scares that the ghosts deliver and actually stay put in your mind. The film grips you with excellent suspense techniques throughout the whole thing and there was many times where I was peering at the screen through my fingers. After being disappointed by James Wan's Insidious and Insidious 2, I was sceptical about giving this film a chance, but I am so glad I did, because what those other two films lacked this one gained.