The Conjuring (2013)

An evil spirit latches onto a young family and its up to a pair to Ghost Hunters to try and save their lives...

When the Perron family move into their new home with their five daughters, they have no idea of the history which comes with the house. Soon they are being terrorized by an evil spirit and they have no option but to turn to a pair of professional Ghost Hunters. The Warrens, are recognized by the Catholic Church for their skills in finding and removing evil, but even they have trouble in coming to terms with what is inside the Perron house. If they can keep control over their own emotions they may be able to stop the presence which seeks to destroy both their and the Perron families, lives.

In what seems to be a glut of "based on true events films", Malaysian director James Wan (He of "Saw" and "Insidious" fame), brings us the next film which is meant to make us cling to our seats and watch the screen through our cool drink bottles as he tries to scare us. In this he does quite a decent job as the movie certainly will make you jump a few times, and even elicited the odd screech of fright from the audience. On the back of that, it does drag in places, and is a little predictable, but all in all is a quite good film.

Vera Farminga and Patrick Wilson play "Ed" and "Lorraine Warren", she a psychic and he a demonologist, who go around college campuses discussing their "trade" with whoever will listen.  Both give decent performances, but you come away from the film, not really convinced by their characters. Some of her "experiences" are far from believable, but the couple does keep the film chugging along.

Lili Taylor, spends most of her time on TV screens, in the likes of "Hemlock Grove" and "Blood Ties", but makes a good step onto the big screen as "Carolyn Perron". Her transformation from courageous home maker and mother to five daughters, into possessed maniac with a blood lust for killing children is impressive. She may well have found her niche in horror and should be interesting to see how her next few showings pan out. Ron Livingston completes his seventh project for 2013 with his role as "Roger", but never really brings anything to the party and is almost forgettable in this one.

John Brotherton grows a mustache and gives a very decent performance as "Officer Brad" in this film, reminding me a lot of "Deputy Dewey" out of the "Scream" franchise, and even managed to bring the odd laugh with his antics. It would be interesting to see him in a more serious role next time.

The undoubted star of the show is the young Joey King, whose career continues to go from strength to strength in the role of "Christine".  The fourteen year old, who we saw recently in "White House Down" and "Oz The Great and Powerful" is a true joy to behold in this film, despite having a far smaller part than she deserves. It is hugely encouraging to see a youngster with this much talent and viewers should look forward to each and every project in which she is involved.  A truly inspirational performance in a film which made it hard to do so. Another talent to keep an eye out for is the much younger Kyla Deaver, whose showing as "April" shows she also has a big career ahead of her.

The film is one of those which will make you jump and laugh nervously afterwards, but does not go as far as to truly frighten the audience. As a story it is decent and worthwhile of your time, but for hardened horror fans will be a bit of a joke. For those not too familiar with the genre, it is a good stand alone film and left itself open for possible sequels.

6/10