Movie: The Conjuring

Everytime we watch a horror movie, we're almost prepared not to get scared. Yes, you got that right, NOT to get scared. Like most of you, we've seen a lot of horror movies, both Asian (Japanese, Thai, Korean) and Western (American, British, Spanish) and sometimes we can't help but think that most plots, twists, jumpy scenes, ghost make-ups, and almost all elements in a horror movie have been used, reused and abused that they will hardly make you wriggle in your seat. They have become so predictable and tiring, often following the pattern of the successful horror films that preceded them, and that takes away the fun in watching these scary flicks.



Then we watched The Conjuring. I remember reading about this movie on Yahoo, where I learned it's relation to Amityville: the couple who investigated the Amityville haunting were the same couple featured in The Conjuring. While I don't exactly find the movie The Amityville Horror, um well, horrifying, ghost detective stories have always piqued my interests. My husband wasn't too thrilled to watch it though, after a handful of not so impressive horror movies that we cared to watch in a moviehouse. But one boring day in a shopping mall, he didn't want to go home yet and The Conjuring was in the Now Showing list so...

The plot and premise of the movie was nothing new, the scare-tactics were also old-school, but everything was in the right place at the right time, and they wove the right mix of suspense, creepiness and horror that we found ourselves holding on to each other tightly and bracing ourselves for the next scary scene. It was a very good horror movie. The last time we got this scared was with Shutter (Thai movie), and it's been a while.

Was it predictable? Let me put it this way, I was enjoying being scared so much that I didn't want to predict what will happen next or how it will end. It's like watching a ghost reality show where I secretly wish that they were able to actually capture something really scary. And there were a lot of those in this movie. Some scenes were familiar, in fact, they reminded me of other popular horror movies. You get a bit of The Exorcist here, Sixth Sense there, Paranomal Activity, Insidious, etc. but still The Conjuring was able to hold it's own and carve a solid place in the horror movie genre.

One thing that I really really like about this movie is the characters acted "normal". When they hear strange, suspicious sounds in the middle of the night, they don't bring camcorders, they don't navigate their house with flashlights, they do what anyone would do, they TURN THE LIGHTS ON. That's something that a lot of horror movies don't do nowadays because darkness has always been an effective environment to build tension, but there are times when it just looks illogical to keep the lights off. The Conjuring wasn't afraid to scare in broad daylight. Of course, there are some scenes that demand darkness. And those scenes are the ones you should watch out for.

Acting, pacing, sound effects (much of it was just silence which I think is way more effective), camera panning (those contributed a lot), everything was executed so well that makes this movie one hell of a horror film. I can't say enough how good it was, so just watch it. If you're a horror movie buff (the ghost, possession, exorcism type), who like us have been waiting for that film - that film that will scare you and scare you well - you're in for a treat.

Quick Reviews: Movies of the 1st Half of 2013

One of our favorite things to do to distract us from work is to watch movies, whether in the big screen or in our computer monitor. But I've been a terrible blogger and I couldn't immediately review all the movies we've seen this year, after we saw them. Which is how it should be, because movie reviews are meant to help people decide whether a particular film is worth the trip to the cinema or not (or whether it's worth the bandwidth or not, in the case of downloading movies from the internet).

So I'm not sure how these quick reviews can help, but I'm dishing them out anyway. Here are the movies that we've seen for the first half of 2013.


Mama
Genre: Horror
Medium: PC
Verdict: If you want to something to watch for fright night and will make you scream your lungs out or sleep with the lights on, I wouldn't recommend this movie. But if what you're looking for is a sad and grim tale that both tugs at heartstrings and send a few shivers down your spine (although I wouldn't expect much, I thought the scare tactics were just "the usual"), somewhere along the lines of The Orphanage, you may want to consider Mama. The plot is different though: a spirit bound to earth because she's looking for something important to her, intertwined with the story of two very young children who grew up alone in the wilderness. That seemed promising enough. But regardless of the plot and even with great acting from the cast (the two children especially), I still wouldn't classify it as a strong horror movie. For me, it just wasn't riveting enough. It started out nicely, effectively building mystery and interest in Mama and her tragic fate. But when she finally appeared, it was almost funny. And sadly, that's the part I remembered the most.


Hansel and Gretel
Genre: Action
Medium: PC
Verdict: I love Jeremy Renner in Hurt Locker and The Avengers, but outgrew my feelings after Bourne Legacy and this. Hansel and Gretel didn't pretend to be a great movie, although I thought it leveraged on the trend of retelling fairytales and making them dark or serious and at least PG-13, to generate interest. But the original tale of Hansel and Gretel was pretty dark on its own, so all they needed to do was to show blood and some fancy fighting skills. It's pretty straightforward and average, and it offered nothing new or something that will make you go "Wow". Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) looked so old here, older than in the Taken movies. Not that it affected the movie, but I just want to say.


The Haunting in Connecticut 2
Genre: Horror
Medium: PC
Verdict. If you've watched first haunting and didn't like it, don't watch the second. Although the stories are not connected, the executions were both lame. The only thing that kept me watching was Mr. Gordy. But even my curiosity for Mr. Gordy didn't keep me from falling asleep in the middle of the movie. Good thing, I woke up in time to see him save the little girl and her mother.


Dark Skies
Genre: Suspense/Sci-Fi
Medium: PC
Verdict: This was actually quite interesting at the start and got me hooked right away - weird things happening in the house, parents acting possessed - premises that kept me wanting to know more. Until they brought out the youngest son's drawing. That sort of curtailed the fun and mystery for me because clearly you can see from the drawings that there will be an abduction. And I wasn't even surprised who got abducted. It became pretty predictable after that. But despite the effect of the "drawings", I still think this was a decent sci-fi/suspense movie with a bit of drama. At some point, I sympathized with the family's struggle to keep a normal life amidst the weird things happening to them. I was almost wishing that Fox Moulder would come up and sort them out so they can finally live in peace.


Jack The Giant Slayer
Genre: Fiction/Adventure
Medium: Cinema
Verdict: Another fairytale reinvention, although it's not much of a reinvention as the story is fairly the same. They just made it grander, more elaborate and the giants more menacing. But it didn't appeal even to the kid in me.


Oz The Great The Powerful
Genre: Fiction/Adventure
Medium: PC
Verdict: Two things I don't like in this movie: James Franco and Sam Raimi. Two things I didn't like about this movie: everything feels superficial and bad acting (except for Rachel Weisz). Despite the vivid colors, the movie was flat and lifeless. Maybe Oz needs to be told again, by someone who has a better vision of the story. Someone who can give it a heart.


G.I. Joe Retaliation
Genre: Action
Medium: Cinema
Verdict: Read review here.

To be continued (2nd half of 2013)