The Conjuring (2013) - Review

The Conjuring, released in 2013, was the start of a huge film franchise spanning nearly 50 years of stories and hauntings. The Conjuring was directed by James Wan, who you may know as the director of the first few Saw films and Insidious. The Conjuring is pretty different from James Wan's other films but it's still a classic that ages like fine wine.

If you are unfamiliar with The Conjuring, it's pretty famous for being based on the "true story" of the Perron family and their experiences in their haunted Rhode Island farmhouse in the 70's. When the Perron family moved in, they started experiencing hauntings and paranormal activities that soon became violent and dangerous for everyone in the house. When things grow terrifying enough, the Perrons seek the help of renowned ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were real people. Lorraine Warren actually made an appearance in the 2013 film and was an active consultant on the accuracy of some details. The film culminates in a tense sequence and ends at a good place for sequels to pop up naturally following the Warrens and their cases.

This film is a comfort horror film for me personally as the 70's aesthetic and simple but effective story bring a comforting thrill that I can easily re-watch time and time again.

I remember the first time I watched The Conjuring, it was pre-horror-loving me and it was on a Halloween night during the COVID-19 pandemic. My sister and I couldn't go anywhere or do anything for Halloween because of regulations in our area so my parents broke out the projector and projector screen and we all sat outside, in the dark, by the woods in our backyard watching The Conjuring. I should say right now, after the demon jumps off of the wardrobe and onto the girls, I quit and went inside to watch Iron Man or something. Now, I watch the scenes with delight, and very rarely do I get scared by anything in it and rather am just entertained!

Ed and Lorraine Warren played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, are so comforting to watch as they feel like everyone's protective mom and dad. They always want to help the family in need and they have such natural chemistry that feels so legit. Now, in real life, I've heard none of that was the case but I'm simply talking about the films here. Vera and Patrick are amazing and really hold the whole franchise together!

And now, the spoilers section and heavily opinionated part of the review. You've been warned...

Warner Bros. The Conjuring poster via Google

This film is so good that I highly recommend watching it even if you don't like horror. Upon a little bit of a deeper look, this film really started a horror renaissance of scary films and dark movies being taken much more seriously in the mainstream and outside of simply around October. I was in 3rd grade when the film came out so I didn't see it in theaters but I can imagine the terror of it being based on a true story and that scaring people even more while they watched it for the first time.

I love the sound design of the film a lot. The Perron family home was an old New England farmhouse both in real life and in the film (both in very different styles from each other) and being from New England, I've been in quite a few old homes and even grew up in one, albeit it wasn't as old as the Perron's home was not was it haunted (maybe idk). The creaks in the floorboards, the windows inside lining the doorways, and the odd sounds are pretty familiar to me and perhaps that's partially the reason why this film is so comforting to me. The score also is amazing but pretty much needs to be the base of the sound design's stunning impact. The opening music is chilling, unsettling, and quite frankly demonic. That's really the most standout piece from the film's score apart from the sound design.

My favorite part of the film is definitely the exorcism at the end of the film as it's so well done and interesting to watch. Carolynn Perron ends up being possessed by the demonic witch haunting the family's property and attempts to end two of her children in the process Carolynn's screams and guttural sounds are so unsettling and chilling that it makes the whole sequence so unsettling to watch but in the best way possible. Patrick and Vera also shine here by performing an informal and impromptu exorcism which makes the whole thing so much more urgent and tense. The visuals are amazing like Carolynn's face morphing into the demon's so suddenly and seamlessly! The floating of the chair and everything in the basement being flung around is so chaotic but it works so well! It all feels like genuine people are scrambling around with whatever knowledge they have on the subject just trying to help and do their best which is a stark contrast from other exorcisms like in The Exorcist (1973) where it was way more formal and the demon wasn't as feral and unhinged as the one in the first Conjuring film.

The film does have a happy ending whereas it didn't in the real-life story which I dislike but movies gotta movie sometimes so I get it. I do love that everyone is happily together in the end with the Perron family and Ed and Lorraine get to go home to be with their daughter again after spending a lot of time far from home. The thing I often think about is, two of the children were nearly killed by a demon possessing their mom and I just wonder how will they ever look at their mom the same way ever again? That's not a bad thing but an interesting takeaway after watching the film. I've seen it probably 30+ times myself but I often wonder what their future looks like.

My one negative of the film is the use of jump-scares. Jump-scares in horror films are a staple, you know the music swells the camera lingers on one shot, and quickly a loud sound triggers a scary image to pop up out of seemingly nowhere. I don't hate jump-scares in films but oftentimes, the music swelling gives it away that one is coming up and it's so overdone that way that it's not as impactful to the viewer. The thing that I dislike is when a jump-scare is in a film just for the sake of putting one in there. It's not earned and not cohesive to the part of the story we are in so it feels cheap. The Conjuring has a lot of jump-scares, especially in the beginning half of the film while everything paranormal is gearing up. The first one, yeah that's good like it got me. Second and third jump-scares, ok yeah that was neat. After that, I'm a bit tired of them and they feel really cheap and kind of randomly placed in the story sometimes. I prefer the consistent scares like in the exorcism part of the film where it's non-stop scary imagery and it's not one second of something then mundane household stuff or whispering again.

I do really love his movie but the jump-scares man, they do knock off some points from me so, The Conjuring (2013) gets an 8/10