Typical and overrated

Rating: 5/10 (19 June 2015)

The Conjuring might make the list of most overrated movies of all time. Another attempt at horror by James Wan (Insidious series, Saw, etc.), The Conjuring spirals into a typical horror movie.
The movie starts out with a family moving into a new house (which happens in majority of supernatural horror), and the land on which house sits hides a sinister secret (another typical thing). The Conjuring parallels Insidious, in the sense of a mother trying to protect her kids from evil forces. It's a nice thought but doesn't do much for the movie as it goes downhill from midway through with Ed-Lorraine and their crew setting up paranormal kits like CAMERA and EMP detectors all over the house in an attempt to catch the so-called demon(Ghost Adventures anyone?). The climatic exorcism scenes might work for some non-Horror fans who gets scared at everything, but for someone who has been watching all of his life feels like a lazy effort with the climax especially going into the realm of overdramatics.
While Vera and Lili does sell the roles of mothers well (they were great, let's give it to them) and Wilson does well too, the supporting casts were glaringly subpar in their roles with Ron Livingston's attempt at playing a father being the weakest of them all.
Overall, it's not a bad movie at all, but it's not great either because the plot is nothing but cliché (the same old "move into a new house, get terrorised by an evil spirit" story) with some really overdramatic scenes (especially the climax). Vera Farmiga and Lili Taylor did really good in the movie but the other performance fell short of them. The Conjuring is really overrated when there are scarier movies out there with some unique stories. 6/10