The Conjuring (2013)
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 165
Fresh: 142 | Rotten: 23
Well-crafted and gleefully creepy, The Conjuring ratchets up dread through a series of effective old-school scares.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 5
Well-crafted and gleefully creepy, The Conjuring ratchets up dread through a series of effective old-school scares.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 93,142
Movie Info
Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville. "The Conjuring" tells the true story of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga), world renowned paranormal investigators, who were called to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most horrifying case of their lives. -- (C) WB
Cast
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Vera Farmiga
Lorraine Warren -
Patrick Wilson
Ed Warren -
Lili Taylor
Carolyn Perron -
Ron Livingston
Roger Perron -
Shanley Caswell
Andrea -
Hayley McFarland
Nancy -
Joey King
Christine -
Mackenzie Foy
Cindy -
Kyla Deaver
April -
Shannon Kook
Drew -
John Brotherton
Brad -
Sterling Jerins
Judy Warren -
Marion Guyot
Georgiana -
Morganna Bridgers
Debbie -
Amy Tipton
Camilla -
Kymoura Kennedy
Student #1 -
Sean Flynn
Student #2 -
Ashley White
Female Student -
Zach Pappas
Rick -
Arnell Powell
Reporter -
Joseph Bishara
Bathsheba -
Rose Bachtel
Leah -
J. Donovan Nelson
David -
Christof Veillon
Maurice -
George T. Zervos
Catholic Priest -
Carmella Gioio
Mrs. Walker -
Steve Coulter
Father Gordon -
Desi Domo
Suicide Maid -
Dusty
Sadie the Dog
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The Conjuring Trailer & Photos
All Critics (165) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (142) | Rotten (23)
Wan builds mounting dread with silence and suspense, lingering the camera unsettlingly long here, creaking a door there.
Top CriticWan ... builds the many bumps in the night into a small Hitchcockian symphony of terror by way of long, eerie tracking shots, dramatic silences, and sudden scares that are frighteningly immersive.
...there were moments where it seemed the entire theater was holding its breath. We were united in one feeling: terror.
The horror movie is artfully crafted from the first scares to the closing credits, with a bold retro vibe.
This is a horror film where a pair of suddenly clapping hands gives you the heebie-jeebies, and Wan doesn't cheat with his jump scares.
Without recourse to the gruesome S&M excesses of his "Saw" franchise, Wan conjures the chill of a demon breathing down your neck.
A carefully, masterfully crafted and ever-so-crescendoing exercise in atmospheric dread.
These things run on faith, not reason, like the silly amateur exorcism that will have to be intoned when a priest is too far away and the silly scientific paraphernalia carted around.
The Conjuring is the Ultimate Fighting Champion of haunting movies. It is all of the movies. Every single one.
A very effectively mounted frightfest, played extremely straight, with very good performances.
A pastiche of every horror movie you've ever seen but one that is enlivened by the screenplay written by the twin brothers who wrote the superlative 2006 remake of "House of Wax".
None of it is particularly bloody or violent, but young Wan and twin screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes, up to now mostly unheralded in the horror genre, fashion a harrowing montage of thrills from beginning to end.
America's stealth auteur, James Wan, directs unpretentious, inexpensive, stylistically consistent horror movies that spook audiences and scare up enormous profits; he embraces the genre's tropes and demonstrates why they continue to unnerve.
As a solid spook show, The Conjuring works, though the ending doesn't strike me as big enough for the story leading up to it.
The Conjuring suffers from a lack of momentum that proves impossible to overlook...
I was not expecting to be scared out of my wits by this creepily crafted and sublimely superior supernatural horror, but I was. Before the end, my cinema seat had worked itself through the three demonic stages of infestation, oppression and possession.
It's scare-to-medium stuff with the usual ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night.
The polish belies the fact that The Conjuring's a sausage made from the ground-up leftovers of other movies. Said offcuts are fact based of course.
The sound effects are the aural equivalent of a 21st century form of digital diarrhoea, guaranteed to leave the hairs on the back of your neck suffering from erectile dysfunction.
Wan is super-talented at delivering frissons and jumps, he just needs to take himself a bit more seriously.
Smart, stylish horror flick, though a standout more for its elegant performances than any original scares.
A meticulously and ingeniously crafted scare machine.
The film may flaunt its true-story credentials for the sake of lurid immediacy but, like the best of its variety, it has a healthy understanding of its own silliness.
Wan's shocks are predictable but - yikes! - are they scary.
Here is a humdrum hunk of am-dram Gothic, lent prestige by a few specious avowals of its basis in a true exorcism case.
Conjures up expertly timed scares and very little else.
Audience Reviews for The Conjuring
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Christine: No, no! It talked to me.
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- Suicide Maid: You made me do this.
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- April: When the music stops, you'll see him in the mirror standin' behind you.
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- April: When the music stops, you'll see him in the mirror standing behind you.
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- Ed Warren: The devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges on which we decide to follow.
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- Carolyn Perron: My family means the world for me.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| the exocist of the 21st century | 3 days ago | 143 |
| Fresh Or Rotten?? | 4 days ago | 118 |
| I'm immensely confused. *SPOILER ALERT* | 16 days ago | 113 |
| Possibly James Wan's first good movie? | 2 months ago | 77 |
| Question: Do you believe in ghosts? | 2 months ago | 50 |
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Latest News on The Conjuring
August 1, 2013:
The Conjuring Writers Sell The FeudScreenwriting duo Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes have sold their next project, which "centers on two...
July 22, 2013:
Are Niche Movies the Future of Summer?The success of movies like "The Conjuring" -- and repeated failure of 2013's would-be summer...
July 21, 2013:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: The Conjuring Scares Up Biggest Horror Debut of 2013This weekend, following four consecutive frames of animated sequels ruling the North American box...
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Foreign Titles
- Conjuring - Die Heimsuchung (DE)
- The Conjuring (UK)
