Movie Review: The Conjuring

I'm kind of surprising myself with my movie choices recently. I think I'm slowly coming out of my shell and embracing horror movies... the good ones, at least. Yes, "The Conjuring" is one of them. At least for my wuss-life standards anyway.

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While I definitely have to give them negative points for the way that the ghosts looked (i.e. not scary... they did much better with the scenes where you could only see shadows and hands, IMHO...), they do deserve positive points for the following:

"The Conjuring": A True Story

As mentioned time and time again in my movie reviews, I have a thing for movies that are based on true stories. I wish it wasn't, but "The Conjuring" is one of those. Creeeeepy shit.

"The Conjuring": The Opening Scene

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The opening scene of "The Conjuring" creeped the hell out of me coz I'm not just coulrophobic; I'm pediophobic, as well.

Quick anecdote: my daughter Syrena got a baby doll as a Christmas present last Christmas. And I never allowed it to be brought into my room. I don't have anything against dolls that don't look like actual babies or children, but the ones that do? STAY AWAY FROM ME, DEMON CHILDREN!!!

Unfortunately, that is exactly what the opening scene of "The Conjuring" featured: a possessed doll. Yup. Greeeeeat.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I decided to do my research and found out that the possessed doll actually looked like this:

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Unlike the Annabelle doll in the movie, the real one looks exactly like something kids would play with... my daughter included. Kill me now.

"The Conjuring": The Cast

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If you can just ignore the creepy feet dangling behind him and focus on Patrick Wilson for a second there, you should know why I am so in love with his angelic puppy dog face. I mean, seriously... That's Raoul from "The Phantom of the Opera" and Nite Owl from "Watchmen" okay. Let my geek-nerd flag fly!

Vera Farmiga is amazing in this, as usual, and you get to see Lili Taylor in an equally amazing role and the kids in "The Conjuring" are even amazing-er. Wait for that scene where Joey King cries in bed. I hope that kid goes places.

"The Conjuring": The Director and the Sounds

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Another thing that made "The Conjuring" so good was the direction. I'm telling you: it will keep you at the edge of your seat not knowing if or where something will pop up. And those darned sound effects!!! Horror movies are 50% about the music and sound effects, and "The Conjuring" definitely did well on those counts...

"The Conjuring": The Aftermath

As for the aftermath... well, it's been a day and I'm still not over "The Conjuring". That's partly why I decided to write this movie review on it. "The Conjuring" stays with you. It just does. You'll think about it repeatedly. You'll talk about it repeatedly. And whenever you hear two random claps from now on, you are gonna get scared shitless. That's just a fact.

I tried to make light of the aftermath and actually clapped my hands twice in Starbucks today, though. There were these two high school girls who screamed. It was fun. :p Do it to me, though, and I will never forgive you.

via thefineartdiner.blogspot.com

"The Conjuring": The Ending

To tell you the truth, I have no idea how "The Conjuring" actually ended, though. Whenever that music box appeared, I chose to close my eyes coz, as mentioned earlier, I'm coulrophobic and there was a frickin' clown in that music box.

And second of all, I had this deathly fear that if I looked into the mirror of that music box, I would see the room that I was in. So... you know... if you wanna tell me what they showed at the end, please do. :p

4 stars out of 5.