We may have mentioned before that horror seems to be going through a bit of a tough time, and when we say tough we mean there has been very little original ideas in the genre for the last few years. Horror films are incredibly difficult to make, people expect to be genuinely terrified to their core and there is also the issues of the big reveal and how to approach the ending that filmmakers find genuinely problematic. Most will question how the horror ends if you discuss it, mainly because very few have managed to get it right.
What is genuinely refreshing about James Wan is that his absolute love of the horror genre literally jumps off the screen and it is this deep dedication to making a horror film work that has made his films to date huge successes and interesting pieces. When Saw was released, it was probably one of the most influential films in horror at the time alongside the likes of Wes Craven’s Scream which had come just a few years before it. Scream had changed the horror rules, Saw made them a lot more gory. Sure the sequels were not to everyone’s taste, but you cannot say they were unpopular and didn’t make any money at the box office.
Wan moved on from the Saw series after Saw III with perhaps one of his greatest successes coming in the form of the terrifying Insidious. Revolving around a child who is being sought out by evil spirits, Insidious proved that Wan fundamentally understood audience concerns for horror. When we question why people would ever stay in a haunted house, Wan shows us that the evil spirit has latched on to the family and not just the home they live in.
However, with the Conjuring, Wan’s filmmaking talents have been taken to another level. While Insidious worked for the most part, it lost its way in the second hour after the big reveal. Wan certainly seems to have learnt his lesson with this new production.
Based on a true story, the Conjuring revolves around the Perron family, Roger (Ron Livingston) and Carolyn (Lili Taylor) who uproot their family of five daughters to live out in a farmhouse they have bought in the idyllic countryside. However, within a short period, strange incidents begin to occur in the house, leaving their children petrified and the thought that they are under attack.
Desperately trying to rid their house of the spirits that haunt them, Carolyn tracks down paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to find the spirit and perhaps to help them get their lives back to normal. But the Warrens are completely unprepared for how bad the situation actually is and the extent to which the demon wants this family out of the house.
As the Blair Witch proved with their marketing campaign, nothing gets audiences into screens for horror films like the tag line “based on a true story”. The fact that the actual Lorraine Warren was a consultant on the film and that the real-life Perrons have claimed the experiences in the film is almost exactly the same as they went through makes this a little more haunting.
Add to this the fact that the cast are a group of serious and well-thought of actors and you really have a horror film to be reckoned with; Vera Farmiga is excellent as Lorraine Warren, the troubled paranormal investigator who sees far more than the others but manages to keep most of her visions to herself. Livingston, Taylor and Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren all put in incredible performances.
Wan also changes up the horror rules a little, this is nothing that you would not have seen before but his camera angles and what he reveals to us throughout the film make it one of the best horror films you will see this year. It also delivers plenty of jumps and scares with buckets of tension. This genuinely is a good old-fahsioned horror.
Let’s just put it like this, not only will you never ever own a porcelain doll again, you will never play hide and clap.
