The Conjuring (2013) Review

"You can't shoot a ghost."

-Drew Thomas

When the Perron family moves into a new house in rural Rhode Island, strange things start occurring that they can't explain.  After their dog is killed and one of the Perron children is attacked by a spirit, Carolyn (Lili Taylor) and Roger (Ron Livingston) seek outside help.  They convince renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) to help them.  They discover many spirits inhabiting the house with one in particular that is extremely malicious.  They set to work gathering evidence and studying the history of the house so they can get the Catholic Church to do an exorcism, but the Perron family is running out of time and the evil spirit is eyeing the Warren's as its next target.

What Works:

I'm a big fan of horror movies.  It's easily my favorite genre, but I typically don't care for demonic or exorcism films.  The subject matter doesn't really interest me, but I have to say I really enjoyed The Conjuring.  It's a very well crafted film with some excellent technique.  There are some really well made scares and some excellent cinematography.  

The cast is what really sells the film.  Everybody does a great job.  I am a big fan of Patrick Wilson mostly because he reminds me a lot of my Dad.  Wilson is great here and it's interesting to have a guy performing this exorcism that doesn't really want to.  He wants to keep his wife away from all this stuff, but he feels bad for the Perron family.  It's a interesting character trait for a protagonist in this kind of move.  He and Vera Farmiga have great chemistry and a sweat relationship.  I know in real life the Warren's were huge frauds, but in a movie where everything they claim actually did happen, their characters are very likable.

Ron Livingston doesn't get nearly enough work and it's great to see him in this film.  He gives a great performance as a father and a husband who has no idea what is going on, but is desperate to help his family.  I like that while he is a skeptic, he recognizes he is out of his depth and mostly lets the Warren's do their thing.

The rest of the Perron's are great as well.  The kids add a lot to the film with their fear about what is happening at their home and bump up the creep factor with some of their line deliveries.

Once the Warren's arrive at the house, the movie gets really interesting.  It's fun having such a large group of characters at the house working together to combat the threat.  We get a bunch of great and creepy sequences and everyone gets something to do.  I especially like the camera flashes to let us know where a spirit is located even if we can't see it.

Finally, the 3rd act is incredible and one of the best exorcism sequences I have ever seen.  It's really exciting to watch, especially because the character giving the exorcism has never done it before.  It's gory, intense, and pretty terrifying.  The sequence has a lot of moving parts and it pulls off all the complexity well.

What Sucks:

It does take a while for the movie to get going.  The Warren's don't show up at the Perron house until about 45 minutes into the movie.  That's a lot of set-up and frankly a little too much.  We definitely could have cut some of that.  Also, some of the dialogue was a little repetitive.

My other problem with this movie is we've pretty much seen it all before.  It's just another exorcism movie.  Granted, it's a well made one, but it doesn't really add anything new.

Verdict:

The Conjuring is a solid movie with great acting, scary moments, an awesome 3rd act, and great technical aspects.  It's takes a little too long to get going and it doesn't add anything new to the genre, but The Conjuring has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good