Horror movies are usually the red-headed stepchild of filmmaking. They’re hated most of the times by movie critics. Parental groups despise them so much they’ve been successful in getting them removed from theaters, which was the case in the original Silent Night, Deadly Night. And the Academy Awards have pretty much refused to acknowledge them, except for maybe Get Out, The Silence of the Lambs and the first Jaws.
But for many movie lovers, they are the best. They’re good escapism for a couple of horrors. You’re not watching movies made just as Oscar bait. It’s just something meant to be fun and entertaining. Even at carnivals, people flocked to the spook-house rides. The poster art for many horror movies have more creativity than mega-blockbuster which just stick the actors of a movie with floating heads looking off somewhere. (Side-eye to Disney/Marvel movies.)
Yet one thing Hollywood does when they have a hit is go overboard with the format. Last week, I posted about The Blair Witch Project and how the found-footage format would be used in horror literally ad nauseam. By 2013, it was already growing old following the success of the first Paranormal Activity. There already were four of those movies out there by the time The Conjuring hit theaters in the summer of that year.
Along with zombie movies, found-footage was an oversaturated format/subgenre by the early 2010s. So, James Wan returned to basics by giving us the old-fashioned haunted house format. Wan who along with friend/filmmaker Leigh Whannel had created the Saw franchise and more or less the gorno style that came with it, had already done a supernatural haunting movie with Insidious in 2010 which focused on a family tormented by evil spirits that follow them. It had been a big hit and gave him the clout to make The Conjuring.
The movie claims its based on a true story. But you have to take that with a grain of salt. A lot of movies have indicated the story is based in facts but Braveheart and Good Morning, Vietnam really only use the names of real people in true historical settings. But a lot of what happens in the finish product is from the mind of writers. The Conjuring revolves around the controversial Ed and Lorraine Warren, who spent years investigating reports of supernatural and demonic incidents throughout the world. Their claims were often disputed as hoaxes for their fame.
The movie opens in 1968 with Ed and Lorraine (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), two demonologists investigating the horrific incidents around a doll named Annabelle. (The doll used in the movie is a vintage porcelain and made to look creepy but in real-life it was a Raggedy Ann doll.) Then, the movie switches to Harrisville, R.I. where the Perron family is moving into a farmhouse. The patriarch is Roger (Ron Livingston), who works as a trucker and spends too much time away from his family. His wife, Carolyn (Lily Taylor), is understanding and seems contempt to take her position as housewife.
Their five daughters seemed thrilled to be moving into a new home with a nice lake in the back. But their dog, Sadie, refuses to come in the house. Eventually, she is found outside near the back of the house dead. Both Carolyn and her daughter, Christine (Joey King), experience malevolent spirits. They contact the Warrens who perform a seance only to discover an evil spirt has attached itself to the family.
In 1863, a witch and Satanist named Bathsheba Sherman sacrificed a baby to the devil and thus cursed the land where the house sets on. All who have lived on it since have faced violent gruesome ends either through murder or suicide. Wan really manages to scare us with the overall tone of the movie, even though some of the jump scares might seem tacky. However, the hand-clapping part will have the toughest people clutching the arms of the chair in fear.
Eventually, Carolyn is possessed by the spirit and Taylor does a good job of showing a character who is evil and possessed. Taylor’s whole career has seemed to be portraying characters who don’t fit the “norm” of the way women in movies should look. This might surprise younger audiences who can see how pretty she is. Granted Livingston isn’t given much to do and the five daughters eventually all seem to mesh together. You get the impression that the writers had to constantly have other characters calling out their names or else we’d forget about them.
As for Wilson and Farmiga, they look very little like the real-life Warrens but they still have a wonderful chemistry together. Farmiga evokes the Betty Homemaker look and style Lorraine had while Wilson gives off the middle-America style of Ed. (In real life, Ed had a more heavyset husky body.) It’s probably because of the chemistry that New Line Cinema, under ownership now by Warner Bros., greenlit a sequel. The first Conjuring received mostly positive reviews and grossed over $300 million worldwide.
So, three years after the first Conjuring and two years after the Annabelle spin-off, Wan returned as director for The Conjuring 2. This movie focuses on the more infamous Enfield Poltergeist. While the investigations of the Warrens have been disputed, Enfield has been been heavily debated for decades, most notably for pictures of young girls “levitating” which actually look like they’re jumping up in the air.
The focus this time is on a single mother, Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor), who lives in a council house in the Enfield borough of London, England. She has four children who like the kids in the first one don’t really stand out as much. However, her second-oldest daughter, Janet (Madison Wolfe), brings a Ouija board home. And after that, there are strange occurrences as Janet sleep walks and talks with the spirit of an old man, Bill Wilkins (Bob Adrian).
This movie has more of a scarier feel to it than the first one and in my opinion is far better a movie, a rarity for horror. Also, the scenes of the Crooked Man (Javier Botet) are the stuff of nightmare fuel. Wan and his writers build a plot over if what is happening is real or just an elaborate hoax. Peggy claims she sees the same evil spirits her children do. However, none of the other adults do. Other paranormal investigators such as Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney) and Anita Gregory (Franka Potente) heavily dispute the claims. One of the common arguments in these cases are that adults suspect the children who are using in their teens are doing it all for attention.
Whether it was real or not is irrelevant. Wan actually builds a good story based around two families dealing with the paranormal. The Warrens had to face criticism on a more global scale as they are repeatedly accused of being hoaxers on TV shows. Wilson and Farmiga managed to portray a couple who found themselves compelled to help others even though it might have harmed their own. A scene where their daughter, Judy (Sterling Jerins) spots the Demon Nun (Bonnie Aarons) in the house is acted and directed so well, you may end up turning on all lights in the house. Ed is worried about Lorraine because while investigating the Amityville DeFeo family massacre, where she first encountered the Demon Nun. There’s a perfect way the two actors work off each other.
In many ways, I wish the series just ended here with Ed and Lorraine dancing together at the end of the second movie. Yet, it made over $320 million worldwide so quitting while you’re ahead is never an option. The franchise was already booming with another Annabelle movie in 2017 and The Nun in 2018 with Farmiga’s younger sister, Taissa, in the lead. Unfortunately, there was a third Conjuring movie released in 2021 that wasn’t directed by Wan, who made Malignant instead. It’s not as good as the first two and but still made over $200 million. There are reports a fourth Conjuring is expected for 2025 to be the final in the franchise.
Considering how bad the second Nun movie was, it’s best to end it as soon as possible. But what the first two Conjuring movies did was focus on the characters instead of the jump scares. While the second movie focused more on special effects, especially for the Crooked Man, it’s hard to believe the first one was made for only $20 million and had mostly practical effects. The performance by Taylor also sells the movie.
Horror is still a subgenre that works on trends and what’s popular. Smile was such a success in 2022, a sequel is planned for later this year. However, movies with great concepts such as The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield ended up being commercial and critical failures.
Hopefully, if the fourth Conjuring is supposed to end the franchise, they make it a good one to end on.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 