James Wan is an independent horror filmmaker whose films, like "Saw" and "Insidious," have always been combative in their guileless grandstanding. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that seeing "The Conjuring" seems like being guided around each room of a haunted house attraction by someone who pulls and pushes you.
Wan's most recent film isn't extremely frightening because its plot isn't that intriguing or mysterious. The film's monotonous jump scare parade and unrelentingly dull explanatory language are overpowering in the worst manner. While Wan occasionally demonstrates his ability to draw viewers in, he mostly prefers to intimidate them into submission, so only one out of every five scares truly gets to the audience.
The reason "The Conjuring" is so uninteresting is that it is two distinct kind of dull. When strange objects aren't tauntingly jumping out of the corner of your eye and loud noises aren't screaming, the entire plot of the movie is explained. Before the movie even ends, the Hayes brothers drop three distinct methods of information on viewers because they are so eager to share their complicated past with the audience. This is evident in their "Amityville Horror" copycat.
The 1968 Annabelle Higgins case, a real-life "haunting" that reportedly involves a scary doll, and two naive, nubile nurses are dramatized first. Then, to a stunned college audience, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) reveal to them that they are demonologists with expertise in exorcisms. The movie never provides an explanation for it.
This film is "based on the true story," takes place in the early 1970s, and it centers on the most significant exorcism case in the Warren family's history. If the movie's title doesn't convince you, that's okay, braaaahm. It's written in a large, bolder-than-Kubrick yellow type, so try not to choke on it.
After meeting the Perrons, a family with five young kids who had moved into a large house on the outskirts of a small Massachusetts town, the throat-clearing continues nonstop. The Perrons and the Warrens never cease describing themselves to one other, and every other scene teaches us something new about them. The boisterous females lament their former house, saying things like, "Well, first cute boy she meets, she'll forget about Jersey."
The Perrons' home has to be cleaned: "Whoa! It will require a lot of work and persistence." As a happily married couple who fear God, the Warrens say, "You said that God brought us together for a reason." Furthermore, although a haunting can go through three stages ("Infestation, Oppression, Possession"), the Perrons themselves are haunted ("It's like stepping on gum: sometimes you take it with you").
Don't be frightened off by the Hayes' rambling explanations; you can still grasp "The Conjuring" just fine by ignoring most of what is stated. However, a major contributing factor to the film's intense jump scare sequence's unsatisfactoriness is Hayes' scenario's painful lack of compelling narrative, engaging dialogue, and thoughtful character development. One may contend that if characters didn't make dumb choices, there wouldn't be much of a movie. But to walk into a room after witnessing a ghost with slashed wrists whisper (loudly), "Look what she made me do," and then turn around, you have to be a very special kind of rocket scientist.
In this film, following a significant painful occurrence, two characters show their respect for one another by stating, "You did good," and "No, you did." The purpose of period features such as Farmiga's collar ruffles in the style of Liberace or Wilson's sideburns and flip hairstyle, which resemble Elvis, is to lull spectators into a state of complacency. However, in a horror movie when the creatures are only mildly unsettling, that kind of bait-and-switch technique is merely irritating.
The prevalence of jump scares in "The Conjuring"'s fictitious scary sequences is revealing. The Hayes and Wan want their movie to be viewed like a theme park attraction. However, they are unable to provide cheap thrills at a low price. The film's horrors are too predictable and formulaic to be truly frightening, even if you ignored the sections of "The Conjuring" that call for more than shock-deep emotional involvement. Wan and the Hayes only went so far as to lose their identities, so all they have to offer is a spooky doll, a shrieking old crone, and dead children dressed in medieval attire. When these objects fly right into your face, they don't seem all that scary. "The Conjuring" is held together only by its makers' desperate attempt to make you feel uncomfortable.
Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren
Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren
Ron Livingston as Roger Perron
Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron
Mackenzie Foy as Cindy
Joey King as Christine Perron
Hayley McFarland as Nancy
Shanley Caswell as Andrea Perron
Sterling Jerins as Judy Warren
