the conjuring

A chilling true story of the supernatural, a violent murder and an unknown evil that shocked even the experienced paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren : If like me your a fan of The Conjuring franchise and invested in it’s characters and the horror universe it plays out in then Michael Chaves movie will get under your skin and deliver plenty of knee jerks, shivers and chewing of finger nails, yes of course I was disappointed to hear James Wan wasn’t returning to the franchise he started but after watching Michael Chaves brilliant directorial debut The Curse of La Llorona I was more than happy to enjoy another chapter of Conjuring : the third film of course sees the return of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren a real life husband and wife team of paranormal investigators who are now looking into the possession of David a young boy from Connecticut and the alarming events that followed : I watched this movie on the big screen, allowing the darkness of the movie theatre to consume me I was ready…. or so I thought…. in typical Conjuring fashion those sudden ear bursting moments of screaching SOUND really caught me off guard, especially at the beginning of the movie when David is being tormented by some evil entity and Ed & Lorraine with the help of some family members & a local priest are trying to perform an exorcism really startled me…. and AGAIN when David goes all Regan on the dining room table the SOUND matching the horrific intensity of the scene, really standing my hair on end : loved the nod to The Exorcist early on as Father Gordon arrives standing outside the Glatzel house looking up at the window, so poetic, Ed & Lorraine’s love story arch with it’s emotion and early flashback are beautifully handled (that gazebo scene had me like niagara falls), the supporting cast that includes Fringe’s John Noble (when is he not great eh?) & Ruairi O’Connor who I last seen in Teen Spirit are excellent and along with the well worked screenplay written by Aquaman’s David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick it’s the chemistry of it’s two stars Wilson and Farmiga that once again deliver believable and emotional characterisation of the Warren’s, this third film has more backstory allowing both stars to grow their respective roles even further : overall THE CONJURING 3 is a superb entry into the franchise and one that has everything you’d want from a horror movie : it’s super SCARY, has a COMPELLING and facinating story and the ATMOSPHERE you could cut with a knife ★★★★

Number 31 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their new family home out in the country : Since the great John Carpenter gave up the director’s chair and Wes Craven left us for his new home in the sky, it’s my humble opinion that Australian filmmaker James Wan has delivered more consistent scares than most since SAW hit the screens back in 2004 : in typical James Wan style The Conjuring contains no sex scenes and when it came to the film’s rating the movie received an R for pure scare value alone, the film also contains very little violence just pure nerve jangling horror, filmed like a throwback to the 60s and 70s horror gems : Wan shot the movie in 28 days on a budget of just over $20 Million and to this day the film has grossed well over the $300 Million mark : The Conjuring (like most low budget pics) relies heavily on some creative storytelling and superb acting and there’s plenty of this on show with the reliable pair of Wilson & Farmiga along with The Haunting’s Lili Taylor who really does look like she belongs in the Hammer Horror era overpowering the screen with her unique beauty & ability to switch between playing a loving parent to a raving looney in a nano-second, the scene’s where her character is possessed and the demonic spirit won’t let her leave the house is amongst her finest work, I was also impressed by Ron Livingston’s working dad performance, truly believable and adds so much to the film’s ensemble : I really dug the way James Wan gives the viewer a little taste into Ed’s treasure trove of horror at his home including that creepy demonic doll Annabelle and other items taken from cases Ed & Lorraine worked on : overall The Conjuring is one of the creepiest horror movies in the last 20yrs, the camera work especially inside the Perron’s house is quite brilliant (those upside down shots and inside the walls of the bedroom are terrifying), the film made me jump out of my skin on more than one occassion, and if you have a wardrobe in your bedroom it might be an idea to invest in some locks before revisiting this masterpiece ★★★★½

The Nun (2018) – Movie Thoughts

Posted by absolutebadasses on September 10, 2018

Posted in: Movie Reviews, Reviews. Tagged: cinema, conjuring, Corin Hardy, Demián Bichir and Jonas Bloquet, film blog, films, horro fan, horror, horror movies, horror night, movie website, nun, romania, scary movies, Taissa Farmiga, the conjuring, the nun. Leave a comment

THE NUN : Corin Hardy
Taissa Farmiga, Demián Bichir and Jonas Bloquet

I loved 2015’s The Hallow a low budget Irish Horror by Corin Hardy that was both atmospheric and superbly shot and I have recently spoken of my admiration for James Wan and his effective, simply terryfying Conjuring movies so of course when I heard Hardy was taking the reigns for a new movie set in The Conjuring universe I was pulse racing, mouth dribbling excited………… Sadly that excitment ended after recently watching Hardy’s The Nun a film that fails to live up to to the scares of it’s predecessors, no bold, darkly written storyline, almost rushed in the making, a film that felt like a corny version of Hammer House of Horror, that’s not to say the film totally sucked it just needed to be much darker and less predictable – due to it’s small budget there’s no doubt the film will make money at the box office but being a fan of the series and a horror geek in general I was left overall very disappointed ★★★

Since 2004 film maker James Wan has impressed & scared the holy moly out of me, in the horror genre he’s been a revelation, a breath of fresh air and dare I say the best horror director in the last ten years, a modern genius, dark and twisted yet alarmingly smart – he has this uncanny knack of getting it right, he knows his audience & how to tap into their fears, his haunting camerawork, clever use of casting and his usual heart stopping soundtracks add to the overall tension & creepiness of his narrative, I have not seen this consistently in the horror arena since Carpenter ruled the screens in the late 70’s early 80’s – his films including that devilishly fun & violent Saw, the twisted underrated Dead Silence, both scary ass Insidious movies and 2013’s spine tingling The Conjuring gave me nightmares for weeks after – so upon visiting the big screen for his latest offering expectations were already high, not only was this a new James Wan horror movie but this was a sequel and as any movie fans know creating that same vibe, that same intensity of any original movie is a hard task to get right but James Wan is better than your average film maker, his horror’s are uncomplicated, low budget but most importantly they will scare you in spades and guess what? THE CONJURING 2 is certainly no different, it’s Wan at his delicious, frightening best, a nail biting pillow hiding feast of supernatural horror at times reminiscent of the classics of yesteryear such as The Exorcist and maybe just maybe this will go down as one of the Best Horror Movie Sequels of all time – Once more at the heart of a James Wan feature, almost like a muse is the brilliant Patrick Wilson his chemistry with Vera Farmiga is a pleasure to watch, at times it’s like watching Tracy & Hepburn bounce off each other, their energy infectious, their acting sublime and their roles of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were just made for them two actors to play – there are too many good bits in this movie that scare and are downright creepy, from “The Crooked Man” to the “Nun”, to that “ghostly flooded basement” and that scary ass “Rocking Chair” all of which will make you look for that light switch but for me the opening scenes where Farmiga’s character Lorraine witnesses the Amityville Murders via a seance is as good as any of them, it’s heart thumping, spine tingling cinema, your glued to your seat, in the dark as you watch the camera pan from room to room, the echo of the gun going off as each of the murders are committed, the cinematography is spectacular yet completely terrifying – Overall: The Conjuring 2 is some scary ride, if your a fan of the supernatural and things that go bump in the night then James Wan’s latest will help raise your heart beat to a new level – also take note of this name Madison Wolfe one day soon she will be a huge star – Brilliant !!