Conjuring up a scary movie night

After reading an endless amount of positive reviews, I have finally watched The Conjuring!  This in is thanks to Melody who kindly sent me a copy of the movie. I can't believe it took me this long to watch The Conjuring because ghost movies are my favorite kind of horror movie, and I've followed the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren for years. 

For those who aren't familiar with the Warrens, they were a couple who actively investigated many haunted places and possessed people. I believe I read that they had over 10,000 investigations. Ed was a demonologist and Lorraine was/is a psychic medium. After hearing Lorraine interviewed on several podcasts, it was cool to see her portrayed in movie form. I have absolutely no complaints about the actress (Vera Farmiga) who played Lorraine. In my opinion, she looked and sounded really similar to the real deal. She also radiated the kindness that came through in Lorraine's interviews. I can't speak as much for the actor who played Ed, because I've heard more of Lorraine's voice. I can say that he didn't look all that similar to the real Ed. You might recognize that actor (Patrick Wilson) as the same man who played the father in the Insidious movies. I liked him better in this role. He came across as more kind and patient, but then he wasn't possessed in this movie.

I found a really entertaining page of pictures comparing the actors to the real people in the story. Those who have seen The Conjuring are going to be interested in this:

Reel vs. Real Faces of The Conjuring

There's a lot of interesting trivia under those pictures that's worth reading. There are also photos of the house where this actually happened. The house constructed for the movie seemed to be more the director, James Wan's vision than reality. It had some similarities to the Insidious house. That's one of the things about The Conjuring - if you like James Wan's style, you'll like the movie. You'll also notice a pattern. There is a recognizable flow to the action. He knows how to build tension and you'll notice that you have to wait a while for the action. Not that I'm complaining! I think a lot of nervous tension and quiet moments help to produce bigger scares. In fact, my few complaints about the movie involve the scary spirits/demons when they finally do show up! After writing reviews for Insidious and The Woman in Black, I'm noticing that pattern with myself. I'm spooked by the quiet creaking of doors and hints of shadows in the corner of a room, but I'm not too impressed with some bloody, hollow eyed thing leaping out. There was probably another group of people watching The Conjuring who said "Finally!" when the leaping occurred, but I thought the entities were a little over the top. That and why was the ghost of a woman who died shortly after childbirth portrayed as an elderly hag? I guess some might say that it was a demonic entity that chose to show itself in the creepiest way possible. Or maybe she went really prematurely gray...

Aside from those few complaints, I really enjoyed The Conjuring! I'll get into describing the plot in a hopefully non-spoiling way. The movie starts with a snippet of the Annabelle story. Those who know about the Warrens are all too familiar with Annabelle, but for everyone else: Annabelle is a doll. She looked like this in real life:

...and like this in the movie:

You can read more about her here:

About Annabelle

It's an interesting read!

Long story short, Annabelle comes with a few issues. You might think she was possessed, although the Warrens explain that she's more of a conduit for a demon who'd rather possess a human. Annabelle has a small role in the beginning of the movie, which I think was a way of introducing the audience to the Warrens and what they do.

The movie takes turns introducing us to the Warrens and introducing us to the Perrons. The Perrons are a nice family comprised of two parents and five girls. The Perrons move into a new home, knowing nothing about the previous owners or history of the land. The house is of course haunted. The story takes place in the 1970s, and there's a pretty good soundtrack of groovy old 70s songs sprinkled throughout. Someone spent a lot of time collecting 70s decor and clothes for this movie! 

Like Insidious, the stage is set with us watching a fun, pleasant family go about their daily lives. Little things happen here and there, but the family excuses them away. A door squeaks open? It's an old house. One of the girls bumps her head into a dresser repeatedly in the night? She has a pattern of sleepwalking. Carolyn, the mother in the family wakes up with more and more giant bruises on her body every day? It's an iron deficiency. The list goes on and on. After a point, the events become too much to ignore.

I won't give away too many more of these events, because I don't want to spoil the scary bits. The scary bits are for the most part worth waiting for. The timing is perfect. Lets just say that by the time the house has become a chaotic mess of paranormal activity, Carolyn Perron decides to get help. She attends one of Ed and Lorraine Warren's lectures. What's neat is the appearance of the real Lorraine in the audience! I wonder what it was like for Lorraine to watch the actress who was portraying her up on that stage. After the lecture, Carolyn explains to the Warrens that her house is violently haunted. They eventually agree to come over and take a look.

Through Lorraine's psychic abilities and a lot of research, the Warrens deduce what has infested the house. After reading the real history of the place, I was surprised to learn that they actually went light on the ghosts in this movie! Although, if every ghost/event was mentioned this movie would have probably gotten confusing and long winded. Without giving away too many details, I'll just say that a lot is explained, there is a possession, and all hell breaks loose. I've seen a handful of exorcism movies, and this exorcism was handled quite differently. I liked how it was directed. Man, is it scary.

I thought The Conjuring did the Warrens justice. Without being too familiar with the women who grew up in the house, I'm going to guess it did them justice too. I read that all five of them had a part in getting the details right. If you visit the site I linked to earlier, you'll see a photo of every woman who grew up in that house sitting with the girl who played them in the movie. It's fascinating. I wonder if the sisters felt tense watching the movie or if it was healing in some way to get their experiences out there. I can't imagine going through that family's experience.

This movie could be good start to a long discussion. It makes you think about what causes these events. Is it a negative spirit? A haunting? Residual activity from terrible events in the past? A demon? The movie makes you consider the power of faith on negative forces. Ed Warren is forced by the desperate circumstances to perform an exorcism rite, despite not having done so before. He is familiar with the process, but he is not a priest. He does however have a strong faith in God and positive energy. An interesting piece of trivia is that Ed Warren went on to become the only non-clerical demonologist recognized by The Vatican.

Thinking about Ed Warren's exorcism moment in the movie raised another question for me - Could someone who is familiar with, but not formally trained in, performing exorcisms be capable of cleansing a person/place/object? Or taking it a step further, could someone who is incredibly positive but not part of an organized religion successfully exorcise a negative entity/demon? It's food for thought. I'm asking you to consider the possibility of demons and possessions to answer these questions. I've seen some video of and heard some stories about people who were so physically out of control and speaking in languages they never knew, that I had to at least consider that possession exists. I find exorcism stories interesting, and the more of them I hear the more possible possession sounds. At least, I can't think of any better explanation for these events and behavior!

By the way, in The Conjuring the Warrens keep a souvenir from the house and add it to the occult museum they keep in their house. Annabelle the doll lives in a locked case in the museum too. The occult museum really does exist. Here the real Lorraine gives a tour of it:

Insidious will leave you feeling haunted

After many recommendations, I have finally watched Insidious! I don't even know how many people have asked me if I've seen this. After a point, I started thinking there must really be something to this movie. There is!

Matt, From Spooky Halloween Arts, was generous enough to send me the movie. I'll try not to give any crucial pieces of the plot away, but you might not want to read this if you haven't seen Insidious yet.

I felt like Insidious paid tribute to some classic movie genres while still bringing something new. We've all seen enough haunted house and possession movies and those subjects are both represented here. What's new is the idea of Astral Projection.

Overall, I think the movie was artistically done. There appeared to be a greenish-bluish lens over most of the film, which gave it a bleak look. The first house in the movie is a large, Arts and Crafts style house that was built in 1909.

The characters who live in this house are a couple and their three children. The mom stays home with her kids through the day and gets to hear every shift and creak the old house makes. Sometimes she's also treated to the sight of shadowy figures wandering about. One particularly creepy moment happens when she hears something on the baby monitor that is not at all a baby.

After enough of these high jinks, the mother is convinced her new house is haunted. To make matters worse, her young son has had an apparent fall in the attic and is now in a coma. She convinces her husband to move the family to a new house. Their new place is light and airy, the total opposite of the last house. However, it's not long until the activity starts up again.

A priest is brought in, and we are eventually introduced to a psychic and duo of paranormal investigators. The paranormal investigators have sort of a Mormon missionary look to them. They're dressed more formally than any paranormal investigators I've ever seen. They add whatever levity is in the film. The psychic reminded me of the little woman who comes in to help the family in Poltergeist. She was sweet, soft spoken, trying to help a child, and a conduit for the other side.

One of the dressed up investigators with the psychic

The psychic makes contact with a series of paranormal entities. In a scene which is probably open to interpretation, I watched what I think was a residual haunting of the first house. Then there are other random ghosts wandering about and something that very closely resembles a devil/demon/the worst old Krampus postcard images you've ever seen.

I happened across a makeup tutorial for anyone who would like to recreate the creature's look:



Whether you find Insidious scary will depend on what scares you. There's not a whole lot of stuff leaping out at you, despite what the trailer leads you to believe. Watching that, you'd think this movie is just a bunch of nonstop jump scares. It's much more subtle and artistic than that.

In fact, Insidious reminded me a little of The Woman in Black. I was reminded because of the movie's timing and build up to scares. That and one of the characters looks nearly identical to her.  Maybe there have been lots of black veiled women in Victorian mourning dresses in Horror movies, and I've missed them. The veiled character in this movie was sort of a Woman in Black/Baby Jane mashup.



The same makeup artist you saw in the first video also created a version of that old lady ghost:



Isn't it funny to hear him sounding like a nice person under all this creepy makeup? Not that this is at all related to Insidious, but he does a killer Beetlejuice makeup tutorial too.

Somehow "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" managed to get even creepier when used in this movie. It was a surprising song choice, but it worked. I found some video of the "Tiptoe" scene with a little hidden gem. I bet those of you who watched the movie missed it. I sure did.



That's part of what's scary about ghost movies - the idea of something being able to watch you without you seeing it.

I found myself most freaked by a scene that probably wasn't supposed to be the most scary. For those who've seen the movie, you'll remember the unmoving wax-like figures in the 1950s style clothing.

I've seen this character referred to as The Doll Girl

I assumed these figures were the previous residents of the first house. Since we're viewing what I assume was a murder that took place in the home long ago, they've become yet another layer of the haunting.

The movie ended in a way that made me say "What!?" It was clearly one of those "...to be continued" endings. I wasn't aware until now that Insidious Chapter 2 came out in 2013. I need to see that! Many of the reviews I've read say that the second movie is even scarier than the first.

Last night after watching the movie, I thought to myself how it was just the right amount of scary. I laughed at myself during the movie as I jumped at a few moments, and I didn't feel traumatized after viewing it. I did, however, think of the movie a little today. Since basically all the action happens inside two homes, I noticed some household items reminding me of scary moments. Every door seemed suspicious, like it might creak open.

The ghosts were big on door opening.

The writers were saying on the DVD commentary how they thought the movie would stick with viewers, because of those everyday moments around the house. Common, uneventful moments like looking in a bathroom mirror, or reaching into a kitchen drawer, make you think twice after watching Insidious. This goes to show the movie's everyday, ordinary vibe. I really did feel like I was watching a normal family. Sometimes we're watching them from such a distance that we can  assume something else is watching them too.

Insidious is a slow burn of scares. It sneaks up on you. I went from wondering when the action would occur to getting the chills. The movie has that slower pace. If you're into subtle, shadowy frights, you'll have a good time getting scared by Insidious!