The Conjuring -Movie Review

THE CONJURING:

A recent movie that almost chills our spine with its eeriness. It is a supernatural horror movie which narrates the story of a haunted house. Ed and Lorraine Warren who were American paranormal investigators, who investigated the original Amityville case and that reports inspired the Amityville horror movie.

Directed by:  James Wan

Produced by: Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran, Rob Cowan

Writers: Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes

Main Cast: Ron Livingston, Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor

Released on: July 19, 2013 in USA and on August 6, 2013 on India and UK

This movie got a critics of 87% on rotten tomatoes and 84% of popcorn. Imdb rated it 7.7 out of 10.  This movie starts with 2 girls talking about a possessed doll to the most famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Who says that the doll was never possessed, but a demon tried to possess them using the doll.  They take up the doll along with them and Ed keeps it in his collection room.

The Story is set in 1971 when Roger (Ron Livingston) and Carolyn (Lili Taylor) moves to their new farm house in Harrisville, Rhode Island with their five daughters.  As soon as they all entered their home, just their dog refused to enter and was shouting at something for a long time. The last daughter was sitting below a tree and was playing with her dancing doll. The other daughters found a way to the cellar while playing blindfold and three claps game, where Roger and Carolyn found more valuable stuffs and planned to sell them and make money. The next day, Carolyn wakes up with a bruise; one of the daughters saw their dog dead and everyone got horrified. And Carolyn noticed every clock of the home struck by 3:07Am which was weird and changed back the time to normal. On the other day, she came to know that one of her daughters talks to an imaginary friend who is actually a ghost. And when they both were playing the blindfold and three claps game Carolyn happened to hear another person clapping instead of her daughter. One of the girls, while sleeping was pulled down by leg by some force.She wakes up.She gets to see someone standing behind the door.Wakes her elder sister and she could see nothing. Suddenly the door shuts behind them. They start to scream at the top of their voices. Their parents come rushing to save them.Series of events followed like Carolyn happened to see their photo frames on the wall of the stairs fall down mysteriously and broke. And Cindy sleep walks and used to get stuck nearby a closet where she keeps banging her head constantly. On the other day when Roger was away, Carolyn happened to listen to some giggles and claps, when she followed it, she went into the cellar and it automatically gets locked. Whereas, Cindy sleepwalks again, but her sister Andrea helped her get back to bed, but Cindy wakes up, saw a ghost on the top of the closet and got horrified where Andrea is standing nearby and the ghost jumped over Andrea. That is where the Carolyn’s lock opens and she came out listening to the shout when Roger who was away comes back to home and came by running to see what happened. The Carolyn gets new bruises every morning which made her more worried and suspicious.

The next day Carolyn meets the famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in their meeting and says her problem and asks them to help her. Where Ed initially was not that interested, but Lorraine compelled him concerning the five daughters of Carolyn. They go to Harrisville, and Lorraine happened to see a black curse following the Roger and family.  

They both investigated and came to know that the Harrisville once belonged to a witch called Bathsheba who murdered her own baby as a sacrifice to the devil, and killed herself under the long tree nearby the house by hanging herself, after cursing everyone who takes up her land. They come to know that the land was vast once but divided and sold then. Similar haunting cases have been faced by the divided land owners too; one of the owner’s kid was vanished and never found. And the owner committed suicide. And there were other murders too. After learning and history of the Harrisville and all the mysteries happened around, Ed and Lorraine insisted the Roger family to undergo an exorcism in the house, but for that they need some evidences to show and get the authorization from the Catholic Church.

Ed and Lorraine sets up some cameras and voice recording instruments in Roger’s home in order to collect evidences of the supernatural paranormal activity in Harrisville, along with a local Police. Many paranormal activities happened and on a situation, Cindy sleep walks again along with a ghost and gets back to the closet and disappeared. That made others to wonder and they discovered a secret passage behind the closet. Lorraine was already warned by Ed not to do this along with him, since she saw something horrible on their last exorcism and she was scared to death. Still she risks herself for Roger family and their daughters, since she have a daughter and she very well knows the pain of a mother. She went into the passage to find what’s inside but falls on the cellar where she encounters the ghost of the old owner of the place who was possessed by Bathsheba and killed her own son and then committed suicide. And Lorraine comes to know that Bathsheba used to possess the mother to kill the children and warns Roger and Carolyn, but just before that Carolyn was actually possessed by the witch while sleeping.

The same time another daughter of Roger, Nancy was violently dragged by her hair by the ghost of Bathsheba when Lorraine had to cut the hair to save her. The Roger and family had to move out of the house out of terror and rented a hotel room for stay. Where on the other hand, while falling on the cellar, Lorraine missed her chain with her daughter’s picture on it. And the next minute the ghost of Bathsheba tried to haunt Lorraine and Ed’s daughter and just before it could attack her the Ed arrived and saved her from harm. At the same time, Carolyn who was possessed already takes Christine and April, 2 of her daughters and goes back to Harrisville to kill them. Roger informs this to Ed and Lorraine and they comes there along with the other helpers and Roger comes too leaving the other daughter at the inn. There they found Carolyn almost going to kill Christine but saved at the last minute. They all tied Carolyn in a chair and Ed was compelled to perform the Exorcism by himself though he is horrified. While performing the Exorcism various paranormal things happen and Carolyn escapes and runs to kill the other daughter April, who was hiding under the wooden floor of the kitchen out of fear. But Lorraine holds Carolyn’s hand not letting her stab April, and reminded her of a special moment they all shared together on a beach once. That moved Carolyn and resists Bathsheba and gave time to complete the Exorcism and the Roger family was saved.

Ed and Lorraine  comes back to their home and re unites with their daughter, where Ed receives a phone call saying that the Catholic Church had given permission for the Exorcism and the dancing doll of Roger’s family which Ed has now started playing by itself. And there ends the movie.

Overall, this movie is good to watch and I would give rating 3.5 out of 5. When compared to director’s other movies this is a bit less. Still, it don’t forgets to steal your sleep for a while at least! That too when you know that these are true events and is based on the true case of the Warrens J -Suchitra

If u haven't watched the trailer yet.... here is a sneak peak !