"...what’s funny is, when I made Saw, I got accused of being a fascist, when I made Insidious, I got accused of being godless, and now I made The Conjuring films and I’m accused of being too much God. (laughs) So it’s really interesting to see how people have reacted to my three sets of horror films."
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| Who you gonna call? |
The seeds of
The Conjuring were already being implanted in
Insidious. Both deal with a family moving into a new house that turns out to be haunted and call in on paranormal investigators after the ominous apparition takes a toll on a family member.
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| The Warrens and the Perrons |
The terrorized family here are the Perrrons; Roger and Carolyn (Ron Livingston & Lili Taylor) and their five daughters: Andrea (Shanley Caswell), Nancy (Hayley McFarland),Christine (Joey King), Cindy (Mackenzie Foy) and April (Kyla Deaver). Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga)are the paranormal power couple called in to help.
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| Carolyn Perron (Lili Taylor) |
The Conjuring is certainly Wan's most interesting movie; culminating certain story elements from his past work. The fear of being helpless with an unseen threat from
Saw, a horrific event that occurred in the past taking its toll on the present from
Dead Silence and confronting the inhuman menace found in both
Dead Silence and
Insidious. It displayed some new challenges with this story based on true events, but it doesn't stop Wan from displaying his mad skills as a Horror master from carefully timed jump scares, eerie music courtesy of Joseph Bishara (who also plays the demonic entity) and keeping the malicious threat discrete until the climax when all hell breaks loose.
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| The Warrens giving a talk on demon possession |
It results in a realistic
Ghostbusters with an added exorcism twist. The paranormal experts have a degree the in the field they studied and use various equipment to track down the haunting entity that can possess the living and non-living. Religion also plays a part with the Catholic Warrens utilizing crosses, holy water and a prayer book when things get hectic. Lorraine is a gifted clairvoyant and Ed is a non-ordained demonologist, both having assisted in many exorcisms. They have a locked room full of cursed items that they have retrieved including the Annabelle doll and have a priest bless the room for reassurance. There is talk of baptism, meaning, and the use of religious imagery to trigger a form of reaction from the unseen specters, like a vampire to a cross as one character notices. Religion in Hollywood or even Indie fare is usually seen as a joke or corrupt, but Horror is where it still holds some reverence, particularly Catholicism. Roger Ebert said it best in reviewing
John Carpenter's Vampires:
"When it comes to fighting vampires and performing exorcisms, the Roman Catholic Church has the heavy artillery. Your other religions are good for everyday theological tasks, like steering their members into heaven, but when the undead lunge up out of their graves, you want a priest on the case"
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| Showing a priest footage what they have found. |
Along with Wan's
Insidious, filmmakers like Scott Derrickson, Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard delivered highly acclaimed horror movies from
Sinister, Let the Right One In, and
The Cabin in the Woods, but it wouldn't be until
The Conjuring that proved that good scary movies could be more profitable than a
Saw or
Paranormal Activity sequel combined as it became the highest grossing Horror movie in recent years until
It. What's more impressive is that despite being Rated R, it contains no sexual or gory content; it's given the hard rating because it is legitimately scary. Add in that you care to what happens to these characters and want to see them make it out alive than the usual deadbeat teens or idiotic leads. While a sequel was later made, it doesn't end with a sequel-bait but in good old Wan fashion, it caps off with one final "boo" moment.
The Horror genre may still fabricate the usual trash but
The Conjuring paved the way for better Horror films to take the limelight.
The Horror genre may still fabricate the usual trash but The Conjuring paved the way for better Horror films to take the limelight.
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