Movie Review: The Conjuring

This week's theme is summer blockbuster as the summer come to an end and schools start to go in session. This summer was another good summer for blockbusters. I was lucky enough to go to the theater over eight times to see these awesome flicks. Today I am reviewing the only movie that I saw on opening night this summer, the horror flick The Conjuring. Beware spoilers!

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SUMMARY The beginning of The Conjuring tells the audience what the basic premisses of the film are in a few simple shots of texts. It says something along the lines of: Ed and Lorraine Warren have solved many cases, but one case was so terrifying that they have yet to tell anyone about it... up until now. The storyline is typical, a family moves into a creepy old house looking for a new beginning when spooky happenings begin to occur. Basic poltergeist stuff goes on, doors open on their own, lights flash on and off, etc. Eventually the family decides to contact the Warrens to help them when they discover the gruesome history of their new (old) home. I won't go into too much detail but basically a lady who was accused of being a witch killed her child and then hung herself. Her spirit stayed behind to posses mothers that have moved into her house and force them to kill her children. It ends with Ed Warren being forced to do the exorcism on the mother himself even though he had never preformed one before. In an adrenalin filled final scene, the exorcism is a success even though the mother almost kills her daughter. The film ends with the actual pictures of the family, the Warrens, and the house.

RATING I am going to be completely honest. I loved this film. I will easily give it 5/5 stars just for the sheer volume of terror I felt sitting in the theater watching it. This movie relies mostly on jump-scares but every one of them I was not expecting and caught me off guard, nearly causing me to scream right in the theater. The beginning tells the audience that this was based on a true story, which caused me to think that even after I left the theater I still wouldn't be safe. Being a huge horror genre fan, I know that most scary movies take a while to build up before the spooky-fun begins. This film broke this rule and the first scene shows a terrifying "possessed" doll that I only thought could exist in nightmares. The movie ends with showing pictures of the actual family and house, which was one of the scariest parts making the movie seem much more real. Even the costumes of the late '60's era were great, and the acting was excellent too, something that I have not found in many scary films. In my opinion, this movie even puts The Exorcist to shame when it comes to a scare factor. Through out the movie, my stomach started to hurt because I was scared so constantly, with my only protection from the giant terrifying screen being my hands covering my eyes. I left the theater knowing that out of all of the scary movies I have seen (and trust me, I have seen very many), that this would easily take the number one slot of the scariest movie of all time in my opinion. 

SHOULD YOU SEE IT? Yes! Well actually no, DO NOT see this movie if you don't like to be scared, especially when you leave the theater and are still scared. If you do enjoy a good, no, great scare, go out to the theater right now and see it! If it's out of theaters by the time you're reading this, then wait for the DVD (Blu-Ray) and go get it at the store!