[Locke]

James Wan is a great director. His work on the Saw Franchise, Dead Silence, Death Sentence, Insidious, all great movies, so when the Conjuring was released, I was hella excited to go see it. Sadly, as often with these things, life gets in the way...until now.

What makes The Conjuring so enjoyable is its approach to the material. Firstly, it's the time period, its the 70s so our ghost hunters are limited to the tech and the resources of the time, this is basically window dressing but it helps the ghost hunting feel fresh even though it isn't doing anything new.

Although most importantly is its approach to the supernatural. Many similar films will waste a long chunk of their movie being sceptical of their own story, questioning the reality of the world in which their film inhabits. The Conjuring does no such thing, within the opening moments of the movie it's established that ghosts, demons and the whole shebang are the real thing with no hint of irony and then moves on. The film never questions itself, and never gives the audience enough time to question it either.

It actually has a lot of fun with this approach as well, like when Ed claims he 'doesn't believe in vampires' while trying to piss demons off with religious paraphernalia. or the way Lorraine jokes about the sceptics before the Warren's go to a house to prove it isn't haunted at all, it's just the wind and floorboards.

The strong writing also continues into the continuity, the filmmakers have a firm grasp on their internal logic and cause and effect, meaning no matter how small, if something feels out of place, it's only a matter of time before the purpose is explained. It's strange for a film like this to feel thought out.

Sadly though, that still doesn't excuse just how unoriginal this films plot is. When it's not enjoying itself talking about exorcisms in the same way someone would tell you to use febreeze to get the smells out of your fabrics, it just sort of feels like it's going through the motions.

This feels especially true of the scares which are cheap and tired, featuring lots of 'oh it's gone silent all of a sudden, better take my headphones off before the noise starts blaring' moments that made films like Sinister such a chore to watch.

So even with the fun approach to the cliché, I still don't see why you'd watch this instead of something like Poltergeist or The Shining if you've somehow not seen them already.