Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-12562169-20130718063628

How long has it been since a so-called horror movie actually scared you? Made you jump? Yes. Turned your stomach? Sure. But actually sent chills up your spine? The Conjuring is the first fright movie in years that accomplishes that. And without the aforementioned cheap tricks either. The Conjuring instead resorts to some of the tried and true techniques of classic horror cinema—the slow burn viewer investment in its characters polished camerawork that have long been absent from the genre.

In describing The Conjuring the most obvious touchstone is 1979's The Amityville Horror and with good reason. Just like that film about the alleged demonic possession of a house The Conjuring is based on a similar case investigated by the same paranormal experts that first scrutinized the Amityville house Ed and Lorraine Warren. Ed is a no nonsense kind of guy whose refusal to allow himself and his wife to be labeled as any kind of ghost-hunters belies the fact that he is the only person outside of the Catholic Church that the Vatican allows to conduct an exorcism.

And Lorraine's prim and proper fastidiousness disguises her preternatural ability to communicate with forces outside of our normal ken. A lot of attention is paid by the filmmakers in setting up the Warrens as a bright light of decency which cuts through the dark fog of dread that always seems close to enveloping them. Lorraine's continual confrontations with evil take a physical toll on her and Ed's desire to protect her underscores that it is their powerful bond which endows them with the vigor necessary to ward off the evils they encounter.

In contrast Carolyn and Roger Perron  are the struggling parents of five girls just moved into a dilapidated home in order to make ends meet on dad's earnings as a truck driver. The family is holding together but their are fissures to be exploited. The Perrons become the object of the evil campaign because it's implied their union is weaker than that of the Warrens. A key element in another film 1980's The Shining is the way that movies caretaker is overcome by a haunted hotel by way of the psychic cracks created by his alcoholism. In The Conjuring it is Carolyn stressed by raising five daughters alone for extended periods of time and on a meager budget who is starting to show signs of fractures through which demons may seep in. It is basically predestined that Carolyn will be targeted by the demon haunting their house after we learn the malignant spirit is a witch whose present existence in a ghostly purgatory is tied to an unspeakable act she committed as a twisted mother. 