The Conjuring is easily one of the best horror movie in the recent years. A great movie need not be with huge budget but it sure need to be with great casts (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson) and superb director (James Wan). After 2010's Insidious, James Wan up his ante once again and created another terrifying horror movie franchise (The Conjuring 2 is already in the pipeline, click here for the potential story line).
Even though The Conjuring is not a 3D movie but it is so good that it warrants a guest review in my blog. My friend, Ben is here again to share his review of the movie.
The Conjuring played like a vintage horror movie, and amazingly it worked to earn itself the scariest movie of 2013.
Malaysia born director James Wan paid homage to the 70s horror movie style, playing on the fear of unseen and unknown. While today horror movies tended to focus on the gore and blood elements, with the overload of CGI effects. The Conjuring smartly avoided all that and gone back to the roots of horror. With nearly no gore, limited blood and no sex, and yet The Conjuring earned its R rating would bear testaments on its scare factor.
The plot was completely unoriginal, based on a true story of a family moving into a house with deadly past, terrorized by unknown entity. A group of paranormal activity specialist was summoned to investigate. Based on the above, you would be forgiven if you think this is The Amityville Horror (which happened to be another of the Warrens’ case) or The Poltergeist. However The Conjuring smartly delivered the scares that made horror gene fascinating.
Gone was the recently crazed of shaky camera effects, The Conjuring instead went for wide angle shots with steady frame. The effect was even scarier as the audiences are constantly tensed at the screen while awaiting the next scared moments.
Another strength was the strong performance of the cast, especially the 2 mothers played by Vera Farimiga and Lili Taylor. This gave a strong believability of the movie while adding the tension faced, in short characters the audiences cared for rather than another nameless victim of the apparition. The look and feel gave us the classic 70s horror style without the mobile phones and internet, which did make the haunted house stories worked better. In our age, the family would be opening their house published online and within hours collecting admission charges from netizens.
No doubt there was the usual cheapen scares and sudden music, but in this case they were well played to give the audiences what they want. However The Conjuring rose much higher than those mandatory methods, it was the fear of the unknown and all that small little things like the clapping hands than sent chills down the audiences’ spine. Many of the scariest scenes was when the audiences already been pre-warned of something going to happen, the tensions and anticipations made the final effect more lasting and memorable.
Overall The Conjuring was a well-acted, brilliantly paced with great production value. Definitely a MUST for all movie fans, especially horror movies lover.
Cheers!
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