The Conjuring

by Sarah

Released on July 19th of this year, the movie The Conjuring is a movie supposedly based on true events. The movie follows Ed and Lorraine Warren, well known and experienced demonologists. In real life, they have been said to have taken on over 10,000 cases and founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952. One of these cases even includes the real life Annabelle doll, who you meet at the beginning of the movie.

While not as creepy and grim-looking in reality, there was indeed a case involving Annabelle and her owners: nurses Donna and Angie. Donna received the doll from her mother, after she bought it secondhand. Seemingly a normal doll at first (they had no reason to believe otherwise), Annabelle was just sitting around the house. However, after a while, Annabelle seemed to move. Nothing big, just slightly different positions at times. That could be explained, though, they thought. Maybe the doll was just bumped into. Things happen. But when the doll would end up in a completely different room, and notes on parchment paper were found (no one in their apartment had that kind of paper) that said things like ‘Help me,’ they brought in a medium who said the spirit of a young girl had possessed the doll because she wanted to be with the nurses. Naïve as they were, they accepted it.

Things began to go downhill. Their friend, Lou, was at the apartment once, and when he and Donna were talking, they heard movement in the bedroom. Curious, Lou went to investigate. Everything was in place, except for Annabelle. She was out of place, and when Lou turned around, he felt someone watching him. Then he had scratches on his chest that burned and said that he was sure Annabelle did it. Frightened, they called Ed and Lorraine, hoping to put this nightmare to an end.

They explained to the nurses that it wasn’t the spirit of the little girl possessing the doll; there was demonic activity. They said that the doll wasn’t possessed; the demon was manipulating the doll to make it appear like that. The demon was said to be trying to target Donna’s soul. An exorcism was performed, and the doll was removed, now property of the Warrens. The doll is said to still be locked up in a case, not to be removed.

Fast-forward a bit into the movie, and you see the Perron family moving into their new colonial home in the country. They wanted a fresh start, a new beginning. Their dog, Sadie, refuses to go inside the house, instead staying outside and whining. Some people believe that animals are more sensitive to things such as upcoming storms, spirits, or inhuman things. The Perrons dismissed it though. Maybe they should've listened because not much later, strange things start occurring. Becoming increasingly frightened, the mother, Carolyn, attends a lecture that is being given by the Warrens, seeking them out after and convincing them to come back and investigate.

This movie includes several sequences that could be jumpy to most people. The music and special effects were quality, keeping your attention on the movie instead of the lust-filled couple two rows in front of you, three seats to the left. There’s not much gore (this isn’t the SAW series) and didn’t earn it’s ‘R’ rating for highly graphic adult scenes; it doesn’t have those at all. It was simply said to be too scary for some people, so it was selective about its viewers.

While I never find movies actually scary (yet horror is my favorite genre), it was such a nice change of pace to watch a horror film with an actual plot and in-depth characters. I found it so interesting from the opening credits and Annabelle all the way to the ending, that I’m not about to spoil.