Things that go bump in the night and almost give you a heart attack - well, I am fascinated by and scared of them at the same time. That's why I decided to go watch 'The Conjuring'. Of course, the fact that it had a rating of 8.0 on IMDB helped me make my decision as well.
There is nothing new about the story. Sometime in the 70s, a couple moves into a lakeside property along with their 5 daughters. They have bought the property in bank auction and so have no idea about the previous owners. As is the case with most of the stories in supernatural show 'The Haunting', they have poured all their savings into the house purchase. And the father is the only breadwinner of the family. Now, the family also has a dog which, predictably, starts howling and refuses to get into the house on the moving day. I guess there were no horror movies or shows during that time so the family doesn't think much of it.
The children get busy playing hide-and-seek inside the house and one of them stumbles in a corner - only to accidentally tear down a heavily barred entrance to a basement. Now all of us who have watched a horror show or two know that dark basements and attics festooned with thick cobwebs are favorite haunting places of ghouls, spirits and all sorts of ancient demons. But the 70s family is so blissfully unaware that they are delighted to have some extra storage space and possibly, a few antiques that could fetch a good price.
It's only a matter of time before things start getting spooky. The mother has some inexplicable bruises when she gets up in the morning. The eldest daughter complains that she could smell something bad in her room in the night. And the dog that was tied outside all through the night is found dead by one of the children. No surprises there! Soon all the four children are packed off to school, hubby dearest leaves for office and Mommy and the youngest child are left all alone in the house. It's the game of hide-and-seek again! Mommy soon realizes that all is not well in this place. But the husband would hear none of it.
Desperate for help, the wife ropes in a husband-wife pair of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine. By then, the husband has seen a thing or two that convinces him that the place is haunted. The investigators begin their work and the dark secrets of the house by the lake start tumbling out one after another.
As I said, the story has been told before in many horror shows and movies. The characters are the same - the 'there are no such things as ghosts' husband, the wife that believes, the local cop who doesn't believe in anything that can't be seen and the investigators that try to provoke the spirit into 'letting them know that it's there'. What's different is how it all is executed. In this day and age, when the horror shows are a dime a dozen on any channel worth its salt, it is very difficult to scare people. There are so many cliches in the horror genre that, more often than not, people end up rolling on the floor laughing when they see a ghoul pounce on an unsuspecting character. But this movie really manages to scare audience out of their skins on more than one occasion. I particularly remember a scene in which one of the children is dragged off her bed at night and bends down to see if there is anything hiding under her bed. A couple of college girls were sitting behind me. One of them kept asking 'is there anything under the bed?'. And I wished that someone would answer because I had my eyes shut tight :-)
So if you want a good scare or two, go watch 'The Conjuring'.
There is nothing new about the story. Sometime in the 70s, a couple moves into a lakeside property along with their 5 daughters. They have bought the property in bank auction and so have no idea about the previous owners. As is the case with most of the stories in supernatural show 'The Haunting', they have poured all their savings into the house purchase. And the father is the only breadwinner of the family. Now, the family also has a dog which, predictably, starts howling and refuses to get into the house on the moving day. I guess there were no horror movies or shows during that time so the family doesn't think much of it.
The children get busy playing hide-and-seek inside the house and one of them stumbles in a corner - only to accidentally tear down a heavily barred entrance to a basement. Now all of us who have watched a horror show or two know that dark basements and attics festooned with thick cobwebs are favorite haunting places of ghouls, spirits and all sorts of ancient demons. But the 70s family is so blissfully unaware that they are delighted to have some extra storage space and possibly, a few antiques that could fetch a good price.
It's only a matter of time before things start getting spooky. The mother has some inexplicable bruises when she gets up in the morning. The eldest daughter complains that she could smell something bad in her room in the night. And the dog that was tied outside all through the night is found dead by one of the children. No surprises there! Soon all the four children are packed off to school, hubby dearest leaves for office and Mommy and the youngest child are left all alone in the house. It's the game of hide-and-seek again! Mommy soon realizes that all is not well in this place. But the husband would hear none of it.
Desperate for help, the wife ropes in a husband-wife pair of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine. By then, the husband has seen a thing or two that convinces him that the place is haunted. The investigators begin their work and the dark secrets of the house by the lake start tumbling out one after another.
As I said, the story has been told before in many horror shows and movies. The characters are the same - the 'there are no such things as ghosts' husband, the wife that believes, the local cop who doesn't believe in anything that can't be seen and the investigators that try to provoke the spirit into 'letting them know that it's there'. What's different is how it all is executed. In this day and age, when the horror shows are a dime a dozen on any channel worth its salt, it is very difficult to scare people. There are so many cliches in the horror genre that, more often than not, people end up rolling on the floor laughing when they see a ghoul pounce on an unsuspecting character. But this movie really manages to scare audience out of their skins on more than one occasion. I particularly remember a scene in which one of the children is dragged off her bed at night and bends down to see if there is anything hiding under her bed. A couple of college girls were sitting behind me. One of them kept asking 'is there anything under the bed?'. And I wished that someone would answer because I had my eyes shut tight :-)
So if you want a good scare or two, go watch 'The Conjuring'.
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