Based on your review, I am going to see this sometime this weekend.

The "grown men yelling out throughout the theater" line has me intrigued.

I liked "Insidious" as well, but would compare this more to "Sinister". Or not? I liked Sinister. The Conjuring is the best of the 3 though.

Agreed. 12 million is the budget and I think it's the most expensive film, aside from the upcoming FF7 flick, that James Wan has ever worked with. The cinematography is brilliant!

Sinister could have been epic but dropped the ball. The Conjuring buries Sinister. Hands down.

The RT 85% is kind of amazing. I can't think of another recent horror film that had that type of critical acclaim.

Just got back from seeing it. I had fun with it. It's not great, but there are some solid scares throughout. I just wish I hadn't seen the trailer, which gives away the best scene in the film.

Unfortunately, the third act turns into an unintentionally funny homage to , as well as several other horror films. But when it is functioning like a traditional haunted house flick, it works really well.

Saw a late screening and the house was packed. They seemed to love it, but then, they also applauded the trailer for the Carrie remake, so....

Saw it last night and had a blast. Lots of good scares and solid performances from everyone!

That doll, man... I would piss myself if I saw that thing in my place.

Miss Me?

Dead Silence and Death Sentence both cost around $20M each and both almost cost the man his career.

I stand corrected. Nothing like going back to low budget filmmaking to get your cred back. Brilliant.

I like the good supernatural horror movie as much as anyone but what I can't abide is when one tries to force feed me the line that it is really true. While even the greatest horror movie of all time, The Exorcist, has a little bit of a claim to being based on something true (IIRC, it was a case with a boy rather than a girl), I never got the feeling that anything like this was being thrown at me. The book was still a novel and the film had the feel of fiction and no one was shouting TRUE STORY at me.

The Conjuring makes heroes of the Warrens who were either self deluded "Ghost Hunters" or outright frauds. They were major players in the Amityville Horror fiasco which is a thoroughly proven fraud, in my opinion.

For me, this just undercut anything that was good about the film (and there were some good things, until it died under the weight of its way too earnest Warren adulation and forced "truthiness").

Still, because of its positives, I did not think it was terrible. I voted 2.5 stars.

Agreed 100%

It didn't provide the "terrifying" experience I was hoping for. Yes, it's eerie and well-made but was't a home run. It was very crowded and only a small percentage of the crowd seemed to react to the jump-scares. My fiancée agreed.

It was good but not great.

^ Saw it and agree. I am starting to think if my viewing of so many horror movies over the years has hardened me to scary stuff. I remember when The Ring was scoring decent reviews back in 2002 and being underwhelmed by it as well. On a positive note, the theater was packed and many people were jumping at some of the stuff, mainly young women.

I have to give props to Patrick Wilson. He seems to be carving out a niche genre for himself with stuff like this and Insidious. Having solid actors can help elevate these movies a bit.

I agree as well. Didn't much care for the ending at all.


And what the hell got conjured in this movie? I don't remember any conjuring!

Overall I liked it. Way better than Mama, which is the only other horror flick I saw this year. But a few things:

They're saying that its made 41.5 million for the weekend.

Saw it last night, and while it was well-made, I was a little underwhelmed given all the hype it has received. I was really hoping for something with more originality than the typical jump scares and actors being dragged around by wires stuff that has been in every haunted house movie of the last ten years.

I like James Wan's work in general, and he definitely has an affinity for the genre. And as everybody mentioned, Wilson amd Farmiga have become excellent horror film actors who don't condescend to the material. I also liked some of the horror "in-jokes" (clear reference to "Friday the 13th - The TV Series" for example, made me smile).

Personally, I thought Sinister was creepier, and Insidious was more fun. Overall, this was above average for cineplex horror fodder these days, but slightly overrated. And I admit to being jaded by having seen so many horror movies over the years.

I really enjoyed it. It wasn't perfect but it told a good story, scared me some, had great atmosphere, and made me care about everyone's well being so that's more than enough for me. The audience was really into it as well, which always makes a movie fun to watch. I am going with 4.5/5.

I want one of those Annabelle dolls real, real bad. I got a spot next to the Bride of Chucky just waiting for her.

Going to see The Conjuring in a minute. I had absolutely no interest, until I read this thread.

With that haircut, I totally thought the father was Mark Duplass until the credits rolled. Also, good to see Nate's girlfriend from Six Feet Under in another role, but is she always that soft spoken?

Glad you enjoyed it. I loved the old school horror feel, including the opening crawl.

Can't wait to check this out again.

So did I.

Loved the old-school 70's vibe, captured very well. All the acting was top-notch, including the kids. Some good suspense, better earlier on before they start showing the ghosts too clearly. Had the same problem with INSIDIOUS - they showed the ghosts WAY too much in that film so they ended up being laughable, looking more like employees at Knott's Scary Farm with white facepaint on than demonic ghosts. THE CONJURING doesn't have nearly as many silly-looking ghosts as INSIDIOUS did, thankfully. As usual, it's much better when you see less: the pounding behind the doors, etc. Once you actually see an actor dressed up as a ghost (or a CGI ghost), it's just not as effective, and sometimes destroys the tension. I hated INSIDIOUS and MAMA, by the way.

Overall, though, a very good mainstream horror film. Not great, but worth seeing. There's really nothing new here - you've seen all of this before a million times, but when the actors are good, and the filmmaking is more old-school instead of the normal rapid-fire editing we see in everything else, then it definitely deserves some praise.

PS: Thankfully, the comic relief was limited only to a paranormal assistant and a policeman assistant - both low-key enough where it didn't annoy too much. Linn Shaye's character and her two bumbling investigators in INSIDIOUS were horrendous, and it could have been the same thing here. Wan would be better off if he lost his writing team for the next one, but since his films are turning into hits, I guess that really doesn't matter.