Bob's Quick Look: The Conjuring (2013)

James Wan (Saw, Insidious) directs this haunted house film which is based on a true case from the files of noted paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are famous for investigating the notorious “Amityville” house.

The Perron family have moved into a picturesque farm house in Rhode Island, and from day one their lives become a living nightmare. Their dog refuses to enter the house (it’s often noted that animals can sense the supernatural) and the next day, she is found dead. The mother wakes up every morning with bruises, and the daughters are all terrorized in different ways; being pulled across their bed, induced into sleepwalked, etc. The demonic attacks only get worse, and the Perrons enlist the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren to clear their house of the evil spirits.
There have been movies in the past, such as “The Fourth Kind,” that were supposedly based on true events, but were later debunked as either embellishments of otherwise non-noteworthy events, or just downright hoaxes. It came out in the mid 90’s that the Amityville case was a mortgage scam. But, in the case of this movie, no debunking has happened yet, and the Perrons and Lorraine Warren were deeply involved in this movie’s making (Ed Warren sadly passed away in 2006.) So, as far as I know, the events in the movie are true.

*Spoiler Alert*  The first thing I liked about this movie is that Wan creates a tense atmosphere once we are brought into the home, and never lets up on the tension. In a lot of ways, this is a better way to get the audience with a jump scare than to build the tension then snap, then let the tension die away. There is no sense of safety for the characters until the very end, which was an effective way to bring the viewer into the character’s fear for the hour and 50 minutes we’re together. There was one element missing that many screenwriters use to create tension in films like this; which is internal family tension, such as sibling rivalry or marital problems either in place before or caused by the haunting. I was quite happy about this as it never creates tension but does cause annoyance, kind of like the French fry scene in “The Possession.”
As far as the ghosts and haunting elements themselves, one has to remember that this film was based on true events, because there is nothing here that has never been seen before. James Wan has said in an interview that he did not embellish the events to raise the scare factor, but it is a horror film and not a documentary. As a horror fan, I would say that the balance between realism and fright factor is well maintained.
At the risk of sounding bitter, I will say that this movie is rated R for no real reason. There is very little (if any) blood, there is no nudity, only one very slight allusion to sexuality between a married couple, very little in the way of adult language, and nothing really that has not been seen in a PG-13 film. The only conclusion Wan could see is the MPAA were concerned about the fact that this was based on true events and the overall intensity of the film. I, on the other hand, am of the opinion that the MPAA are a bunch of power hungry Nazis who were trying to exercise their authority over movies in general, or extort money from the studio for a lower rating. I for one am happy that the studio accepted the R rating, but it concerns me that films like this might start being rated NC-17 for the aforementioned reasons.
Overall, this is a good example of what can be done in a haunted house movie. It gets my high recommendations.
Interesting stuff:
*The case from the Warrens’ career involving a possessed doll named “Annabelle” was shown briefly in the beginning of the movie. In the film, “Annabelle” is a porcelain doll with some facial damage. In real life, “Annabelle” is a rag doll.
*In the film, Bathsheba Sherman is a witch who, in the name of Satan, cursed those who inhabited her family’s land before hanging herself. In real life, Bathsheba Sherman was suspected of witchcraft and murder of an infant, but was found not guilty by the court of law. She also died of natural causes.