Director James Wan has been terrifying audiences for the better part of a decade with the likes of Saw and Insidious, and with The Conjuring he regales a "based on a true story" set in the early-70s, so there's no mobile phones or quick internet searches to save you here!
Carolyn (Lili Taylor), Roger (Ron Livingston) and their five daughters have just moved into a new farm house, and it's not long before their plagued by paranormal activities. They call in Lorraine (Vera Farminga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson), a couple who specialize in these types of investigations; she's a powerful psychic, he's the only non-priest demonologist recognized by the Catholic Church. They need to find physical evidence of a possession within the house before the Vatican will approve an exorcism of their home, and boy, do they find some evidence.
Right off the bat, you can tell that The Conjuring doesn't have a single original bone in its body; the creepy dolls, the suddenly cold rooms, the weird smells, the bird flying into walls and windows, the sleepwalking girls, the leg pulls from an invisible force… we've seen it all before. However, what The Conjuring does is take all these clichéd aspects of horror movies, ramp the tension up to eleven, and ensure that even though you know what's coming, when the scare comes you'll still be jumping out of your seat in shock.
This is a precision-made ghost-train ride made solely for the purpose of getting a reaction from the audience, but it's also not just another empty horror movie. The characters are given time to breath, so we're given time to get to know them, and they're all played by great actors turning in good performances. Wan isn't lazy behind the camera either, mixing things up with some old-school wide-shots of empty rooms that demand your eyes scan the entire screen to see where the "BOO!" will come from, as well as some dizzying cinematography and a truly fantastic score to help raise the hairs on the back of your neck.
So it's not exactly innovative, and it probably won't be hailed as a classic of the genre, but it is a perfect Friday night out movie, and one of the most entertaining movies of the year.