The Conjuring : Creepy & Terrifying...

Not being a lover of horror films, I never caught up with one in the theatres.  The 1973 Academy-Award winner The Exorcist & the Bollywood horror flick Bhoot, directed by RGV was all I had watched from this genre. According to me, both these films had enough visual & sound effects to terrify the audience. As I was going through Bhoot for the second time, I noticed that the main source of terror was the sudden sound effect (irrespective of the screen showing a demonic creature or not) & RGV had used this trick to scare the audiences more than ghostly horrifying visuals.

A very similar but an enhanced effect accompanied by some great visual effects is what The Conjuring (2013) stands on. The Saw director James Wan extracted a piece of story from the case files of Warrens and directed a supernatural thriller proving to rather more than just a mere horror film. It had the soul accompanied by a well-defined structure.

The film opens up in a remarkable scene where a demonologist Ed Warren & his beautiful clairvoyant wife Lorraine who are paranormal investigators providing rational explanations to strange happenings, investigate a case of the Annabelle doll where a small doll suddenly becomes possessed by the ghost of the 7 year old girl haunting the house of two nurses. The scene remarks the introduction of the two researchers who research & provide solution to malignant ghost invasions in a person or in a accommodation.

The film flies back in 1971 where Carolyn & Roger Perron, with their five daughters move into a bungalow in Harrisville, Rhode Island. Right from the day, they settle in the family experiences weird happenings in the house. Their pet dog Sadie is found dead outside the villa, the mother Carolyn gets strange bruises after she wakes up in the morning every day,  an unknown entity takes to pulling the daughter’s leg every night, the door creaks open mysteriously every now & then. These incidents go on culminating and aggravating as these small strange happenings magnify themselves to reveal large demonic presence in the house.  The menacing situation ends up getting so severe and dreadful that out of fear & despair, the couple resort to the Warrens for help.

The story is not just about the family of Perrons. The life of Warrens is also showcased parallel with the life of Perrons. The film is totally one-sided that you can predict that the lives of these two families are going to end up meeting at an unfortunate turn. The film is not recommended for people with a weak heart as the scenes are impressive but frightening. The demonic visuals are sudden, unexpected & fear-inducing personifying the directorial talent of James Wan since he succeeds effectively in generating chills down the spine.

More enhancing are opening & closing credits in the movie, the weapon most under-utilized in modern cinema as the snapshots from real-life Warren Cases are shown. The film’s cinematography also receives thumbs up as the cinematographer John Leonetti uses some swooping shots to capture characters as they run inside the house.   The film appears to be a winning horror formula after some previously released horror flicks going deep under the ground.

Above all, the director’s clear fascination to horror films like Amityville horror, the Poltergeist & the Exorcist is clearly visible in the film. As the film progresses to the latter half, comparisons of The Conjuring to The Exorcist becomes totally unavoidable  but the director has lived up to the expectations in The Conjuring & succeeded in giving an extra-ordinary film.  For weak hearted people, my message to them is ‘ Try not to scream folks ‘.