Fish and Cherries Productions

The Conjuring may have been one of the tamer horror movies, but it was still creepy with a capitol C. Rather than relying on cheap gore and deaths about characters we didn’t care about in the first place, it relies on a really disturbing atmosphere with some pretty frightening visuals. I also appreciate the fact that the film isn’t held back by a character’s arbitrary skepticism and instead just let most of the characters believe that, yes, there is a demonic presence haunting them. Plus, I really liked the almost scientific way that the ghost searching was executed; it was very methodical and gave the demonologists a lot of credence. However, there is one huge strike against the movie: the villain is portrayed as a woman from the era of the Salem Witch Trials and the movie states that witches achieve their power by invoking Satan, which is total bullshit. My other problem is with the characters, mainly that there’s too many of them thrown at us in such a short time. They’re not given enough focus and, as such, don’t leave much of an impression. Barring that, the film is enjoyably creepy, even if that one huge strike is pretty unforgivable. I rate Paranormal Activity and Insidious 2 higher, but that doesn’t make this any less of an experience.