The Conjuring – First Impression

As I mentioned I was anxious to see The Conjuring and went to the midday show to beat the crowds and the heat. No problem with the crowds, only 10 people in theater for this early show.

The movie starts off slowly by introducing some past "cases" of Ed and Lorraine and giving a brief history of what they do. They also elude to some dark experience that Lorraine had during their last case.

Without giving the story away, as if you couldn’t predict it, the family this house for a real bargain and buys it sight unseen and without knowing anything of the history. Turns out some strange deeds have occurred and after going to one of their lectures, Carolyn (the mother) begs for the Warrens to come and investigate.

The first half of the movie is quite good, as small events begin to happen and we get drawn in. But then it goes too far into the Hollywood spectrum and you can quite literally pick out paranormal shows and horror movies. To me it was so blatant as to be distracting. Instead of letting this supernatural force reveal itself, it becomes this hodgepodge of stories that are supposed to be related, but the way it’s all crammed together is more confusing than engaging. The motive and the plot take a back seat to figures behind doors, bangs against the walls and faces showing up out of nowhere. Not to be cliche, but there doesn’t seem to be any motivation for any of this. There’s no context for any of it.

Overall it was pretty decent with some interesting moments and a glimpse to the early days of the paranormal. Unfortunately, it tries to emulate too many other movies with blatant scares and you sit there going, "I saw that in the Exorcist. That reminds me of Amityville. They’re setting up the house like Ghost Adventures." Perhaps we’ve become tainted and we forget the original source for all those Johnny Come Lately shows. Even so, the movie is a just fragile and doesn’t have a strong thread of story holding it all together. Like I said, it was pretty decent with some interesting elements and insights, but it "reminds" me of too many things and as such isn’t an original like it should be.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Time to have a look at the Conjuring 2
• Rob Zombie’s Take on Halloween and Halloween II
• The Conjuring – A Film About Ed and Lorraine Warren
• Best Halloween Movies?
• The Awakening – The early ghost hunting adventures of Florence Cathcart
• Paranormal Activity 2 – Do we really have to do this?
• Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
• Grave Encounters 2
• Amityville – The Haunting
• Paranormal Lockdown – Hinsdale House – S01E05