Movie Review: The Conjuring

Ok I have put off this review 48 hours longer than I should have but I have my reasons. One, after seeing The Conjuring you WILL be jumpy for the next 12 hours and will not sleep well the night after you see it. Oddly enough that’s a compliment to a movie whose sole premise is to tease you make you jump and just downright scare you. Oh and it does all 3 of those things well.

It starts off with a misdirection about a creepy as hell doll that has demonic forces controlling it (don’t worry you find out about this in literally the first 2 minutes of the movie, I’m not giving anything away). The film is about 2 families, Ed and Lorriane Warren, who were aptly played by Pactrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, and Roger and Carolyn Perron played by Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor. Right off the bat things aren’t right, freaky stuff is happening all over, rotten egg smells randomly, doors opening and closing, clocks stopping at a specific time… and there is no explanation (no rational one anyway) as to why this is happening. Finally Carolyn tracks down the Warrens at a conference they put on in local colleges. Keep in mind though this is 1971, what the Warrens do is looked at with raised eyebrows today, people were incredibly skeptical about this stuff back then but fortunately the movie doesn’t go into this at all and for that I give it credit.

 Now for those of you who know me I don’t scare easy but this movie freaked me out for about a day. Even my mom noticed I seemed to be on edge after coming back from the preview screening Wednesday night. Also seeing it with a theater full of people helps, there’s a lot of laughter early on but not the funny ‘haha’ kind, more like the funny ‘I’m laughing because I want to cover up how nerve racking this is’. Anyone over 70 or under 13 should NOT see this movie. Over 70 because you might literally be scared to death (yes that can happen) and under 13 because he/she won’t sleep for weeks after that. The movie is rated R soley based on how scary it is, granted there is a little gore and one or two swear words but I’ve seen PG-13 movies get away with more in those two aspects. In fact if there was such a rating as NC-13 (If you are under 13, you cannot buy a ticket to this movie, period) this would get it but that can’t happen yes I know.

I say this and I don’t say it lightly, this is the best horror movie I have ever seen, EVER. Better than Psycho, better than the original The Haunting (old black and white 1950’s movie, check it out sometime) better than the Blair Witch Project, Sixth Sense, etc. Go see it, then go tell your friends to see it. Then go tell random people on the street to see it. It is that good. And if a horror movie could ever get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture this would be the one, but that can’t happen. Hollywood won’t allow it.
My rating: 10/10
IMDB: 8.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%