I saw the Conjuring last night. It is pretty good. The movie does a really good job of introducing all of its characters including the family that lives in the haunted house as well as the Warrens, the paranormal investigators. It is really easy, if you are willing to, put yourself in the necessary headspace to level with these characters and feel fear on their behalf. This is something so many horror films fail at with offputting or non-existent characters that instead render waiting around for people to die the only entertainment value of the film.
This movie actually took an interesting turn as I was expecting it to be more of a ghost movie, which it certainly is but it kind of morphed into something else. This movie does not hold back. They may say that the film was aiming for a pg13 but man this thing continually ramps up the intensity throughout the film and really by the end I agree that it earns its R rating. I was really surprised with how far they took certain things. In recent horror films, such as The Possession I've been disappointed by how mundane things remain almost throughout the film, not the case here. James Wan really knows how to build a scene. There are a few elements that kind of come off as red herrings and some odd dead ins on the side but those side plots are still really entertaining. For those who liked Wan's Insidious I think you'll definitely like this but for those who weren't much for that film I think that you'll still like this film. Its a bit more straight forward and serious than Insidious was. I expect this film to have pretty good word of mouth and do quite well for itself, or at least it deserves to. I highly recommend this movie for a night out with friends.
