Is Conjuring the Scariest Horror Movie of the Last Decade?

I was a horror movie lover from my childhood. I loved to get scared and thrilled at the same time. Covering from Psycho to The Sixth Sense, I didn’t like to miss any scary film I heard about. Mostly, they were full of known tropes, some surprising elements, and jumpscares after jumpscares. After the sixth sense, there was little innovativeness in this genre. In the films of the 2000s,  if you open a horror movie, you could predict what would happen, where the “ghost” would come, and how the screenplay would play out. And ironically, many of them turned funny attempting to be very scary.

Then in 2013, I went to see the film, “The Conjuring”. I didn’t have huge expectations, to be honest. I saw “Saw” by this director, and didn’t find it very appealing. But this movie hit me just differently. The way the scary parts were designed was very innovative and way different from the contemporaries. Yes, there are jumpscares but they are not on the face. The story is not anything new, but what sets it apart is the ambiance. In broad daylight, you will feel chilled. You are following a scene, you will expect something frightening, but it will happen in a way that will surprise you. There is a scene where the little girl of the family claims She plays with a boy but no one can see him other than her. When Vera Farmiga comes to the house, She discovers the boy, but “how?” it will amaze you. Another scene, where a lying girl is dragged from the bed by an anonymous identity, is just a distinctive style of filmmaking. The environment is not like “there is a ghost coming”, or “someone will kill you”, rather it’s more of a demonic environment, where you will feel the presence of something unearthly but it is not explicit. There are many many scenes and setups of the movie that will chill you. Now, does this mean the director did everything totally new? No, many tropes have been used before. But what he has done successfully is re-doing the same things in his distinctive way, not going on the face. The use of sound and light was so accurate and scene-synced that made the scenes more appealing. Performance-wise, Patrick and Vera were both brilliant, but I have to mention Vera’s performance especially. In some demonic scenes, her expressions were just extraordinary. It was intense but subtle. The other family casts were perfect for their roles. If we look at the screenplay, it was very well designed. Mainly the way the horror is shown, in a subtle and poignant way, makes it stand apart. You’ll definitely love it if you are a horror lover. 

If you are a horror lover and want to see something new in this Genre, this film is a must-watch.