The Conjuring

Rating: 5/10 (16 July 2016)

I think it's very likely I saw clips, a trailer of a poster for this scary movie during the time of its cinema, I knew it was going to be something to do with ghosts, but that's about it, directed by James Wan (Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious). Basically set in 1971, Roger Perron (Ron Livingston), his wife Carolyn Perron (Ransom's Lili Taylor) and their five daughters Andrea (Shanley Caswell), Nancy (Hayley McFarland), Christine (White House Down's Joey King), Cindy (Mackenzie Foy) and April (Kyla Deaver) have moved to Harrisville, Rhode Island into a dilapidated farmhouse. After moving in, the family find a hidden basement, the entrance has been boarded up, Roger opens it up and inspects, soon strange things start happening to the family, starting with the unexplained death of the family dog. In the next few nights the family find themselves terrorised by paranormal activity, all clocks stop at 3:07am, they hear strange noises, then the spirit starts physically attacking. Carolyn decides to contact married and noted demonologists Ed (Insidious's Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Orphan's Vera Farmiga), they agree to take on the case, after investigating they determine that the house needs an exorcism, but they need church approval. Ed and Lorraine discover the house once belonged to accused witch Bathsheba (a relative of Mary Towne Eastey of the Salem witch trials), who sacrificed her week-old child to the devil and killed herself after cursing all who would take her land, they find there have been numerous murders and suicides in the house over the years. Ed and Lorraine set up cameras and bells around the house to gather evidence of a conjuring, the spirit lures one of the children while they sleepwalk, Lorraine follows through a secret passage in the wardrobe, and falls through the floorboards, there she sees the spirit of a woman Bathsheba possessed to kill her own child. The Perron family take refuge in a hotel, while Ed and Lorraine show the Catholic Church the evidence, the Warrens daughter Judy (Sterling Jerins) is attacked in their own home, but Ed helps save them. Carolyn is possessed by Bathsheba and takes two of the children back to the house, she is found trying to stab one of the girls by Ed and Lorraine, they tie her to a chair and Ed decides to perform an exorcism on her himself. The spirit tries to kill Ed, and Carolyn escapes at one point and tries again to kill one of the children, but Lorraine reminds her of special memories she has of her family, this allows Ed to complete the exorcism, saving Carolyn and the children, and lifting Bathsheba's curse forever. Ed and Lorraine return home, they have a message for another case to investigate in Amityville, Long Island, New York, the film ends with Ed placing the music box from the house on the shelf of relics from other haunting investigations, where the strange doll Annabelle has already been placed in a box labelled never to be opened, the box inexplicably opens and plays music. Also starring Shannon Kook as Drew Thomas, John Brotherton as Brad Hamilton, Marion Guyot as Georgiana Moran and Steve Coulter as Father Gordon. The cast all do their parts fine, the things going bump in the night and haunted house stuff works well, the possessed doll seen a little got its own spin-off prequel, it could have been slightly more jumpy, but bearing in mind it is based on true events it is overall a fair supernatural horror. Worth watching!