The House (and Evil dwelled there)

 

I do believe this was the poster I remember passing by at my local Malco probably a month before release

I remember the feeling of curiosity before the release of The Conjuring (2013), with that buzz more or less fostered by "Insidious" (2010). I hadn't yet watched "Insidious" at that point, although I had watched the first two Saw films and "Dead Silence" (2007), so I was willing to give both that and "The Conjuring" a chance. Okay, so I can go with it despite understanding that the Warrens' notoriety speaks for itself and there are plenty of skeptics calling BS on their history of demonology and cleansing houses and people. But as a piece of entertainment, I find these movies as entertaining as those hokey paranormal shows. I just let James Wan and his team entertain me with their use of sound design (loud bangs on walls and creaking doors and floors), use of audience jump seasoning (doors shutting, ghosts popping up), and ooga booga demonic evil seemingly spirited to life after boards were removed to reveal a walled up cellar where a woman killed herself after her son "went missing". You see that boy in a toy music box (with a clown head peeking up, no less) mirror held by Farmiga's Lorraine Warren. There is a good use of the sound of a creaking rope and a dead body hanging from a tree that Lorraine sees "above" husband Ed's (Patrick Wilson) head. The poster image of that tree and a slight shadow on the ground really popped when you pass by it. Lorraine falling through a crawlspace in a wall is rather exciting as is the use of a music box tune. The witch devoted to Satan, hanging herself in allegiance to him, allowed to possess other mothers who happen to live within the old house in Harrisville, Rhode Island. The possession of Lili Taylor loses me as it just becomes another Exorcist clone. I don't think Wan does a bad job necessarily mimicking the "demon possession" tropes where folks are carried across rooms, down halls, down stairs, and throughout the house. You really have to just bury your disbelief in the use of God's power to vanquish Satan's evil in order for the film to really work its spell. I think maybe if you just take it as a retro horror film, enjoy the setting of 1971, the big house with all its space and relic feel, and the old camera equipment used (basically Wan gets to show off here, but I dug it), there is fun to be had. I like it alright, still. I'm a sucker for the "Annabelle" series that branched off this, though. 3.5/5 is probably about right in how I would rate it.