The Conjuring

A mirrored music box out of which trickles stilted, lilting lullabies. Blindfold games of hide-and-seek. An unknown hand, an exposed ankle, the dead of night. Paranormal pest controllers Ed and Lorraine Warren are called upon by the Perron family to exorcise their Rhode Island farmhouse of such horror cliché. So far, so familiar – but The Conjuring adds up to more than the horror tropes it ticks off.

True, Saw veteran James Wan employs familiar scare tactics, but with a firm understanding of exactly whom he’s playing to: an audience steeled for the jump-scare; one which loud noises and chilling faces alone will not satisfy. So the scares skip beats; vicelike expectation is expertly subverted and thrills are nuanced – all for Wan to drop the terror every time we exhale, with the joyously distressing effect of rendering familiar fears anew. [Kirsty Leckie-Palmer]