THE CONJURING (2013)

Studio:       New Line Cinema
Director:    James Wan
Writer:       Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes
Producer:  Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran, Rob Cowan
Stars:     Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor

Review Score: 

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Summary:

Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren are summoned to exorcise an evil entity from the haunted home of the Perron Family. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

1960 – Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren deliver a lecture about a malevolent spirit named Annabelle Higgins that tormented two nurses after inhabiting a doll.

1971 – The Perron Family moves into their new home in Harrisville, Rhode Island. The family consists of Roger and Carolyn and their five daughters: Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy, and April. Family dog Sadie is afraid to enter the new house. April finds a mirrored music box near a tree by the water outside.

While playing a game of Hide and Clap, the Perron girls uncover a false panel in a closet that leads to a cellar. Carolyn awakes with strange bruises on her body. The children complain of an awful smell. Carolyn notices that all of the clocks in the house have stopped at 3:07. She and her husband go through the discarded items in the cellar. April discovers Sadie dead outside.

Ed Warren shows a reporter the occult museum in his home, including the Annabelle doll. Ed reminds his daughter Judy that she is never to enter that room.

Roger follows strange noises to oldest daughter Andrea’s room where Cindy is thumping her head against a wardrobe while sleepwalking. Roger takes Cindy back to her room. Roger notices another bruise on his wife, as well as a bird that broke its neck after flying into the house.

While the other girls are at school, Carolyn finds April talking to an imaginary friend named Rory. April claims that her mother can see Rory standing behind her in the mirror if she plays the music box. Mother and daughter then play a game of Hide and Clap. Carolyn follows the claps to the wardrobe in Andrea’s room, but she later discovers that April was hiding elsewhere.

Christine is awoken by something tugging at her legs. She tells her sister Nancy that someone in the shadows is staring at them. The door closes suddenly and Christine screams. The parents then console their daughter.

Ed and Lorraine investigate a claim on the advisement of Father Gordon, but find no evidence of paranormal activity. While Roger is away at work, Carolyn sees all of the family portraits fall off the staircase wall. She follows clapping sounds into the cellar where a ball bounces from the shadows before the light bulb explodes. An unseen presence then traps her down there. Upstairs, Cindy sleepwalks into the wardrobe again. Andrea puts her into her own bed, but the noises continue. The girls then see an old woman perched on the wardrobe. She leaps off and attacks Andrea. Roger arrives home and rescues his family.

Carolyn attends a lecture by the Warrens about a possessed farmer named Maurice, and Carolyn convinces them to investigate her house. Ed records an interview with Carolyn while Lorraine acquaints herself with the girls. Lorraine uses the music box to see Rory. Outside at the tree, Lorraine has a vision of a hanged woman swaying above her husband. The Warrens recommend an exorcism for the house, but they need approval from the Church first. Lorraine tells the Perrons that she has seen a dark entity attached to Carolyn and the girls.

Judy gives her mother a locket with her picture inside that matches her own locket with pictures of Ed and Lorraine. Ed learns that Carolyn’s voice did not record on the interview tape. Lorraine’s research reveals that the Perron farmhouse was built in 1863 by a man named Jedson Sherman who married Bathsheba Thayer. Bathsheba was related to accused Salem witch Mary Towne Eastey. Jedson and Bathsheba had a baby that Jedson caught his wife sacrificing at just seven days old. Bathsheba claimed her love for Satan, cursed anyone who tried to take her land, and then hanged herself from the tree at 3:07am.

A subsequent resident of the house named Walker killed herself in the cellar after her son Rory went missing in the woods. Also, when the original farm was subdivided and sold, some who took up residence on the land died strangely or committed suicide. The interview tape suddenly plays by itself and the Warrens hear strange noises on the recording.

The Warrens bring a technician named Drew and police officer Brad to assist in their investigation of the Perron farmhouse. They set up cameras to take pictures when there is a drop in air pressure along with microphones. Carolyn tells Lorraine the story behind a family photo of everyone at the beach. Ed places crucifixes around the home.

While helping the family by hanging laundry on the clothesline, Lorraine sees a figure in Carolyn’s window. Something appears to possess Carolyn, but she sloughs off Lorraine’s questions. Ed helps Roger by fixing an old Chevy in the backyard. Roger thanks Ed for helping his family. Ed tells Roger that he has been worried about Lorraine since she had a disturbing experience during an exorcism.

Officer Brad sees the ghost of a maid with slit wrists in the kitchen. The cameras begin photographing Cindy as she sleepwalks. Ed says that someone is with her. They follow her to Andrea’s room and discover a panel in the wardrobe that leads to a secret room. Lorraine goes into the secret room and finds a noose as well as a spot where the music box used to be. She then falls through the floor and into the cellar.

In the cellar, Lorraine uses the music box and sees the reflections of the maid and the Walker woman who claims, “she made me do it.” Lorraine then sees Bathsheba hanging from the ceiling. She flees upstairs but loses her locket. Lorraine tells Ed and the Perrons that Bathsheba possessed the mother in order to kill Rory. She says that the bruise marks on Carolyn indicate that the spirit is feeding off her. The crucifixes then fall over. An invisible force pulls Nancy by her hair until Lorraine cuts the girl’s locks.

Roger takes the family to a motel. Lorraine has a vision of her daughter drowning in the water and frantically calls her mother to check on Judy. Judy is okay, but Lorraine fears that the vision was a warning. The Warrens show their evidence to Father Gordon and convince him to expedite the Vatican’s approval.

At the Warren’s house, Judy finds the door open to the room of occult artifacts. A dark force chases Judy to a room where a figure sits in a rocking chair with the Annabelle doll. The Warrens return home to Judy and Ed finds the Annabelle doll still locked in its case.

While Roger is away from the motel, Carolyn takes Christine and April back to the house. Roger calls Ed and tells him that the other daughters said Carolyn smelled like rotten meat. Roger and the Warrens return to the house. Officer Brad opens the locked door with a shotgun. In the cellar, the men stop Carolyn from murdering Christine. When welts and lesions appear on Carolyn at the front door, Lorraine realizes that the witch will kill Carolyn if they remove her from the house. The men eventually subdue Carolyn back in the cellar and tie her to a chair with a sheet over body.

Ed realizes that he must perform the exorcism because there is no time to wait for Father Gordon. Birds begin flying into the house. Drew finds April trapped underneath the floorboards. The sheet over Carolyn turns red with blood. When it rips open, she has Bathsheba’s face. Her chair levitates to the ceiling after flipping upside down. The chair crashes to the floor as other furniture in the cellar begins toppling. Carolyn grabs a pair of scissors and crawls through a hole to where April is. Lorraine and Roger both appeal to Carolyn to remember her love for her daughters and the happy day at the beach, which ultimately exorcises Bathsheba.

Outside, the bruises disappear from Carolyn and she is reunited with her other daughters. Ed puts the music box into the occult museum. Lorraine receives word that the Vatican approved the Perron farmhouse exorcism. Father Gordon also asks to speak to the Warrens about the Amityville Horror case in Long Island.

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Review:

Typecasting and pigeonholing can be career killers in Hollywood, but if someone chained James Wan to a camera and forced him to make fright films for the rest of his professional life, horror fans would probably be just fine with that.  Already established as a contemporary master of the genre with “Saw,” “Insidious,” and the often overlooked “Dead Silence,” the notch that Wan puts on his bedpost with “The Conjuring” is a deft-handed display of how to take every horror trope imaginable and still craft an invigorating experience of white-knuckled suspense.

Tack the final reel of “The Exorcist” onto “The Amityville Horror” and the plot summary writes itself.  “The Conjuring” purports to be based on the “true story” of the Perron Family, who had the unfortunate luck of moving into a farmhouse cursed by the devil-worshipping descendant of a Salem witch that hanged herself on the property.  With a provenance like that, purchasing a home on an Indian burial ground might have been a better idea after all.  Notable demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren take up the mantle usually occupied by a Catholic priest in these types of films and begin an investigation to cleanse the house of its malevolent entities.

What follows is a nearly two hour “best of” highlight reel of the most familiar, and most reliable, horror movie scares.  After opening with the introductory tale of a creepy doll, “The Conjuring” goes on to include such clichés as the child’s imaginary friend who turns out to be a ghost, the swaying light bulb on a string casting shadows, a plethora of creaking floors and doors, a music box with an eerie melody, and even a cameo by the bouncing ball from “The Changeling.”

Lesser filmmakers in lesser productions lean heavily on these overused elements for purposes that are cheap and exploitative.  The end result alienates the audience because the effort feels desperate and forced.  But the reason why “The Conjuring” is successful despite relying on old tricks is because there is a genuine reverence for employing these techniques effectively.

Using every available tool at his disposable to complete an effect, from an audio sting to slight CGI enhancements to disorienting camera movements, Wan never employs more than is necessary to sell the fright fully.  There is always a carefully balanced blend to all of the ingredients.  He demonstrates a natural instinct for when to alternate between restraint and wild abandon.  Proven methods work to the film’s advantage because they are always in service to the substance behind the scare, and not simply to the jump moment itself.

That substance comes from a relatable portrayal of ordinary people experiencing an unbelievable ordeal.  “The Conjuring” has a more satisfying path to resolution than similar films with its focus on the strength of family over religious iconography.  The emphasis here is that emotion and affection are more effective tools against evil than Latin phrases or a vial of holy water.

“The Conjuring” works its magic best on those who do not see horror films often.  Although even those well versed in films featuring haunted houses, priests, witches, suicides, ghost children, and references to Satan can appreciate the skill with which those elements triumph on the screen here.

Virtually nothing about “The Conjuring” is unique and yet it seems fresh under the intelligent stewardship of an exceptional cast and crew.  Seeing the film in action is not unlike watching a master illusionist perform his greatest feats.  Even when the audience knows how a trick is done, the timing, dexterity, and showmanship on display is stunning nonetheless.  And while James Wan is making the Statue of Liberty disappear, others still think they are dazzling with the cups and ball.  The gauntlet has been thrown down.  Pity be upon anyone who has to follow this act with a haunting or exorcism movie of his/her own.

Review Score:  80

Click here for Culture Crypt's review of "The Conjuring 2."

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