Who would have thought that the director of torture porn gore fest Saw could come up with something so subdued and old-fashioned? (Scary we’re not surprised by.) James Wan has immaculately drawn from classic scare flicks The Changeling, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror and The Birds for a potent tale of evil spirits and demonic possessions built on mood and dread for what is, arguably, the most terrifying horror film of the last decade (and perhaps one ups some of these originals). Even the title gives us the creeps.
Set in 1971 and based on true events, the film takes it time to unfold the lives of the Perron family (father Roger, mother Carolyn and their five daughters) after their move into a haunted house. Clocks stop precisely at 3:07am every morning, doors open and close of their own accord, strange noises abound in the middle of the night and the youngest child claims that she has an imaginary friend—you get the drift. But when things start to escalate for the worse—that is, when the spirits begin to physically attack the Perrons, a desperate Carolyn enlists the help of paranormal investigators and couple Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) to investigate the house. (Trivia: They were the same couple involved in the equally real “Amityville Horror” case). Lorraine digs up the details of the house’s tragic history (involving a maniacal witch called Bathsheba who slaughters young children for kicks) and, eventually, an exorcism is in order when Carolyn gets possessed.
Sure the plot may not be anything new, but director Wan manages to conjure inventive ways to scare audiences, including one involving a wooden closet (you won’t be able to look at antique furniture the same way again) and another, a children’s “handclap game”, among many other haunting sequences. The strong cast also allows the movie to proceed smoothly at a less-than-breakneck pace. Wilson and Farmiga bring much warmth to Ed and Lorraine’s relationship, while Farmiga adds a haunted quality to Lorraine (the scenes where she actually “sees” the unknown are truly eerie). Indie stalwart Taylor is also superb as the tormented Carolyn, and her possession sequences are some of the most realistic in recent memory. All that coupled with a spine-tingling score by Joseph Bishara, who coincidentally enough, plays the role of the witch, makes this a superbly crafted old school horror motion picture.
