It's 1971. Roger (Ron Livingston) and Carolyn Perron (Lili Taylor) with their kids move into a farm house. Strange things start to happen. They call in married paranormal investigators Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson).

This is an old fashion haunted house scary story. This is no big twist or slasher porn. This is a rather straight forward ghost story. It hearkens back to films like Amityville or Poltergeist. All the actors are spot on. The tension builds nicely throughout the movie. My only complaint is that the ending is slightly too hectic and runs on a little but that's a very minor point. It's barely worth a mention really. It's great to have an old fashion horror done well.

Director James Wan said that he watched loads of '70s haunted house movies before sitting down to direct this, his latest horror movie after the INSIDIOUS flicks. Unfortunately, it appears that the co-writers of the script also watched all the same movies, because this turns out to be yet another entirely predictable exercise in fear-building.

I don't really have a huge problem with THE CONJURING, other than to say that it's all been done - and been done better - before. The old movies like THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and THE ENTITY just seemed to have more authenticity, better production values, and a freshness that made them more frightening. THE CONJURING, meanwhile, goes through the motions without ever offering anything even remotely resembling new.

Saying that, it's pretty good by modern genre standards and a lot better than the schlocky INSIDIOUS movies, also starring Patrick Wilson. The characters played by Wilson and Farmiga are entertaining, not least because they're based on a true-life ghost-busting couple (although to credit them as the "world's most renowned" is insulting, given the reputation of other noted paranormal investigators in recent history such as Peter Underwood, Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair).

The film looks good, and the cast can't be faulted for really getting behind their characters. A shame, then, that Wan is severely lacking in imagination when it comes to the scares. Typically they involve spooky wardrobes, characters descending into cobwebby and unlit rooms, and loud noises on otherwise quiet soundtracks. All very predictable. And the ending goes down THE EXORCIST route again, which is disappointing. Like SINISTER, this is a film with bags of atmosphere and lots of potential which is well worth a watch for genre fans, but it lacks the magic spark to make it anything other than average.

Decided to re-watch both 'The Conjuring' films, with memories of really liking both, after watching, and not liking all that much, 'The Nun' (which was watched as part of my watching as many films of 2018 as possible quest) very recently. Just to see whether they held up, as good as remembered and whether they succeeded where 'The Nun' didn't and didn't make that film's mistakes.

On re-watch, 'The Conjuring' does hold up very well and actually just as good as remembered. It succeeds splendidly in where 'The Nun' failed and has none of its mistakes. 'The Conjuring' is not a perfect film, but it is very atmospheric, well made and genuinely scary, or at least to me it was. It is a very familiar premise, done to death actually, but the atmosphere stops it from being too predictable and there is enough freshness.

'The Conjuring' is overlong but its biggest, and only big, problem is the final act.

It did become repetitive and lost momentum at this point and the very end felt rushed.

Other than those, 'The Conjuring' is very good. It looks great, especially for horror films released in recent years (too many of which have looked like they were made on the schlocky cheap). It looks slick and stylish while having a spooky setting and suitably nightmarish lighting. The music is haunting and not over-bearing, recorded in a way that is not overly loud or obvious that it spoils the atmosphere (which was great because many horror films seen recently failed in this regard).

Script is not too awkward and is structured coherently, with nothing cheapening it like sluggish exposition or cheesy misplaced humour. The direction is meticulous in detail and clearly shows an engagement and ease with the material. The story takes time to unfold but doesn't get dull. As said too, 'The Conjuring' is genuinely scary, with actual tension, suspense and dread, in a palm-sweating and heart-pounding sense at its best, while not relying too much on jump scares (they are there but have build up and were surprising).

Found myself liking the characters more than expected. The leads were ones worth caring for, didn't get frustrated with them, wish for more personality or annoyed by them. The antagonist was frightening, was neither over-used or under-utilised and didn't look cheap. The acting also comes off well, especially Vera Farmiga while also impressed with how Lili Tyler coped with a role that on paper seemed limited.

Summarising, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox