The ConjuringBy Marcus Flewellen

“The Conjuring” is the perfect horror film for people who don’t like horror films. In an era when most horror films rely way-too-heavily on cheap scares and excessive, mind-numbing gore – “Hostel,” “Evil Dead,” and “The Last Exorcism Part II” are the most recent examples – it’s rare to see a film as smartly crafted and thoroughly terrifying as this film.

Based on “a true story”, the film stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as Lorraine and Ed Warren, a husband-and-wife team of paranormal investigators well-known for de-ghosting the Amityville house.  They’re hired by Roger and Carolyn Perron (played by Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) to get rid of a demonic presence that lives in their nice, surprisingly affordable mansion with their five daughters.

The Perrons are incredibly skeptical, but even they can’t deny the strange goings-on that have happened in their house. The daughters can’t sleep at night; they claim they feel something tugging on their ankles as they sleep. Carolyn wakes up to strange bruises all over her body every morning. The family dog refuses to go into the house, and then dies a particularly gruesome death. Are they all weird coincidences, or something more?

The story is paper-thin, tradition haunted-house fare. But director James Wan, who directed 2011’s mega-hit “Insidious” and reinvigorated the torture porn genre when he made “Saw” a decade ago, smartly focuses on establishing the mood and slowly ratcheting up the tension rather than executing gruesome kill shots. The result is chillingly effective, even though there’s little in “The Conjuring” that you haven’t seen before.

It doesn’t hurt that each of the four leads delivers terrific performances. Farmiga and Taylor are particularly good, especially in the film’s terrifying third act. Even when the film reaches its thrilling climax, Wan shows a considerable amount of restraint here, which makes the film borderline unwatchable. In the best possible way, of course.