Director James Wan knows how to scare you. He's the guy who came up with Saw (the original film), gave us the wacky retro-thriller Dead Silence, brought the practical effects back to mainstream horror movies in Insidious, and now he's mastered the haunted house genre with The Conjuring. There's no doubt that this will go down in horror history as a classic.It feels very retro, and not just because it's set in the 70s. This is a throwback to those beloved films we all remember with fear – The Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, Poltergeist – when films were not about body counts and gore. Wan is also not trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather perfect it somewhat and update it for modern (adult) audiences. This definitely is not trying to pander to the texting-tween crowd and that is a terrific thing.
Without any spoilers, I will say that the movie has so much going for it. There's the slow-building atmosphere, dissonant music, an excellent, fully-committed cast (Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor) who keeps the tone dead serious, disorienting camerawork, an unrelenting sense of dread, and the surprises that never stop coming. It's exhausting and exhilarating – and the only thing horror fans should have on their schedule this weekend.
