An invisible man sleeping in your bed

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2013)

Before I saw The Conjuring I heard a lot negative complaints that it was merely "cattle prod cinema" which I inferred meant a lot of awful stingers were the only thing that would make the audience jump. This horrible cliché has been overabundant in many so-called "horror" movies for a good while now and I my expectations were low.
Thankfully, there are no stingers. Yes, there are scares and jumps, but the score is completely unobtrusive and there are no cats jumping out of closets or phones suddenly ringing. James Wan knows that atmosphere, cinematography, suggestion, and the unknown can build suspense and horror, and the Conjuring has plenty.
Apparently based on a true story (which I am extremely doubtful of, but not completely disbelieving) a happy family of mom and dad and five young girls move into a large farmhouse bought at a low price from a bank auction. As soon as they cross the threshold things are not quite right and the property reeks of pure, menacing evil. Eventually they call in the help of a local ghost-hunting couple to document the case and research its history.
It was the early 70s, the real Ghostbusters (pun intended) were still in college.
About 80% of The Conjuring works. The dread, the suspense, and the inability to comprehend what is really lurking in the darkness of the house makes for great horror. The girls see...something, but we don't. It's a lot like Robert Wise's The Haunting, which is kind of ironic since Lily Taylor, who plays the mother, was in the 1999 remake of that movie, which was full of all the worst horror clichés and set-ups, as well as excessive CGI. It's like Taylor wanted to set the balance straight by doing a movie that took the opposite, and more intelligent, approach.
John R. Leonetti's photography is very slick, with lots of slow, creeping shots, but I couldn't help but think that a rawer edge, with exploitation lighting, would have helped it look a bit more authentic. There are a bit too many slamming doors scares too, and towards the end it goes off on a completely pointless tangent with the Annabelle doll and does absolutely nothing with it. For the bulk of the running time The Conjuring seems original and groundbreaking, though in the last act it's a jumble of Blair Witch, The Exorcist, and What Lies Beneath.
The positives still far outweigh the negatives, and I still recommend the film to horror fans. If only we had a version of The Amityville Horror that was made this way instead of that horrendous 2005 movie. No doubt there will be numerous sequels.