Monday, July 22, 2013

Rich Reviews: The Conjuring


The Conjuring combines a good ghost story, an exorcism movie, with a dash of "based on a true story," and the result is a damn good horror flick.  In fact, it's one of the best scary movies of the last decade.  It's not corny, (like so many in the genre), it doesn't rely on "pop-out" scares (although there are some).  It has a solid, intriguing story (based on true events?) and the acting is tops.

Vera Farminga (Running Scared, The Departed, Bates Motel) and Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Insidious, Little Children) are paranormal investigators who go around helping out people who might have ghosts, demons, or what not bugging them.


They play Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are real people, and actually investigated the "Amittyville Horror" case.  Small world, right?

But in this film, the Warrens are sought out to help the Perron family.  The Perrons are a big family.  Father, played by Ron Livingston (Office Space, Swingers), mother played by Lili Taylor (The Haunting, Ransom) and their 5 daughters.  The Perrons move into a big old house, and let's face it, they are not alone.

I'd say the movie starts out a little slow, although most suspenseful ones do.  It picks up with some real scares and even a couple "chills" moments.


I recommend seeing this one in the theaters.  I'll go 8/10.

The bigger question is, where does it rank amongst horror movies in the past 5-10 years?

Off the top of my head the only ones better since 2003 are...

The Devil's Rejects (2005)
Saw II (2005)
Planet Terror (2007) (If this even counts as horror.)

That might be it.  Others in the conversation include:

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Scream 4 (2011)
Feast (2005)
The Descent (2005)
Let Me In (2010)
The Strangers (2008)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

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