The Conjuring: Blu Ray Review

The Conjuring: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Warner Home Video

The latest horror to hit the small screen is a supernatural spooker, which will leave you somewhat unsettled if you watch it late at night and home alone. Even more so, when you realise it's based on a true story.

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren, who are called in to investigate the increasingly violent and disturbing hauntings at a Rhode Island farm house, recently purchased by the Perron family (Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston).

As they delve deeper into the goings on at the homestead, things take a bizarre turn for the worse and suddenly, the Warrens are fighting for more than the family itself and facing one of their darkest cases ever...

Despite being a mash up of many horror films you've seen before - including The Exorcist and Insidious (which also starred Patrick Wilson) - The Conjuring is effective at bringing the whole haunted house vibe spookily to life, providing a few impressive jolts and some haunted house scares which will have you looking over your shoulder after the lights have gone back off for the night.

Farmiga and Wilson play it mostly straight - until about halfway through the film when Farmiga's growing sense of horror is a little overplayed as the clairvoyant Lorraine starts to be affected by goings on. Cleverly shot set pieces work, a lack of overbearing soundtrack helps brilliantly set the 70s scene and there's a bizarre side story about a doll which never fully reaches its demonic potential (though rumour has it, that's part of a spin-off).

All in all, The Conjuring does creepy and eerie pretty damn well; its unsettling if familiar tone working effectively to give you some solid frights, until the predictable second half kicks in.

Extras: Perron family reflects on the case, the Warrens look back on their lives and the director shows you how the film was made.

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