Post by jipper on Jul 21, 2013 1:32:37 GMT -5
The Conjuring (2013)
7 of 10
***Some Indirect Spoilers***
7 of 10
***Some Indirect Spoilers***
Demons, hauntings, exorcisms, birds, witches, possessions and a creepy doll, what more could you want? I'm glad to give my first recommendation to WYH horror fans to go see a horror movie in theaters. To me the trailer of this movie looked good. So what. In recent memory, so did the trailers for Mama, Evil Dead, Sinister and The Possession. Those movies ranged from horrible to average at best. So I didn't get anymore excited about this one then I did for the last one. As a good horror fan should do, I did make my way to theaters regardless to support horror films. I was pleased that I did.
The Conjuring is set in the early 1970's and is supposedly based on a true story. I believe that paranormal is unlikely but I suppose possible. Regardless of what Hollywood does to the film version of things. However when one of the two people this "true story" came from was supposed to be clairvoyant, I knew the "True" aspect of this movie was going to be B.S. which is was. However that didn't stop me from potentially enjoying a good film.
The essentials of the film are a simple one that we've all seen multiple times before. A family buys a house, they move in and get more than what they bargain for. This is seen in everything from the Amityville Horror, Poltergeist all the way up to Paranormal Activity and I'm sure many movies before and many more movies still to come.
The opening segment of the movie made me want my money back. It was so poorly acted and a little on the ridiculous side of things that I thought I'd wasted another $10. However that only lasted briefly. The movie moved on and overall had a slow build in the beginning. This didn't last very long but it was nice. For me, if you don't get your viewers into the story and caring about the people with a slow build, climatic scene after climatic scene won't mean anything because no one will care. You can hear me go on and on about this if I ever review Paranormal Activity 4 but for now we'll just say that this movie wasn't guilty of such things. I personally enjoyed the first 20 minutes of the movie the best. After that initial opening that is.
If you're thinking this is a movie that's all build with minimal payoff, you couldn't be further from the truth. This movie actually goes balls to the wall and holds little back. This isn't one where you have to wait and hour and a half before you actually get to see what's going on. A good 20 minute build to get you invested then it turns over into all hell gradually breaking loose.
Another thing the movie does to break the horror routine. The culmination of the film isn't finding out why things are happening. You actually get to that point of the movie about halfway through the film. The second half is them trying to stop it. Not a lot of horror flicks take that route that early on.
Even though, I like and recommend this film, it wasn't perfect. For the most part the early 1970's setting was good but there were a few moments were things just didn't fit. Early on in the movie the children in the film just seemed a little bit modern for me. That got lost somewhat as the movie went on. One of the kids even had the performance of the movie. The girl who played Christine the middle child (a legitimate teen & not a 30 year old playing one) did a fantastic job in the movie and stole a couple of the best scenes. I hate 30 year olds paying kids. I'm sure the two oldest daughters were in their upper teens or younger twenties but the younger three all had to be children. We all know children and horror just go together.
Another downside to the film for me was amount of activity going on in the second half of the movie. Some of the action/activity sequences at the end were a lot. I prefer a slower movie. While that's my personal preference it really didn't hurt the movie that much. Like I said, it held little back.
The previews made this movie look like all the others. A good preview, that was probably going to be better than the movie itself. This one actually delivered for me. I loved the 70's setting, even if I wasn't 100% feeling it. There wasn't a whole lot of CGI which was a plus. I'm a avid horror movie watcher. I think the last movie that scared me was the Shining when I was a kid. The best I can hope for these days is to get so involved within the story that something in the movie will make me jump. It's been so many years since I've jumped in a movie that I can't even remember what the last one was. This movie got me once and I started laughing after I was so happy about it. This is the best new horror movie that I can remember seeing since the Woman in Black. I believe the Woman in Black was released early in 2012 if that tells you anything.