Trailer Review: The Conjuring (2013) – Trailer 2

The first trailer for James Wan’s new horror movie The Conjuring appeared online a while ago and it was fairly effective. It didn’t really give away any plot details though and now a new trailer has appeared that will give horror fans some more information about the film.

The film stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga who play Paranormal Investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. These characters are based on an infamous real life American ghost hunting couple and in the early seventies they investigated a case often referred to as the Harrisville Haunting. The case involved a family who allegedly started experiencing things that go bump in the night after they moved into an 18th century restored farmhouse. The ghost busting team were called in to investigate the case and this film is a Hollywood horror movie based on those alleged events. The investigating couple were also one of the first teams to look into the Amityville Haunting which has also been the subject of numerous horror films over the years. The case caused a lot of controversy as skeptics claimed the whole thing was a fake stunt. People are understandably rather skeptical when they hear stories about ghosts and demons. The cases the couple worked on got even more bizarre as they also claim to have helped a man who was convinced he was a werewolf. The subject of the case had bitten several people believing himself to be a wolf. Such absurd tales usually provoke ridicule in real life as most rational people will scoff at silly talk of werewolves and demons. That kind of material always works well for movies though and the previous Harrisville case for example is taken very seriously in James Wan’s film.

The Conjuring movie seems to be getting the same treatment as The Amityville Horror based on the info in the trailer. Both films involve the well worn trope of a nice family who move into an old house and are then terrorized by sinister forces. The new trailer is less restrained than the previous one as it contains plenty of jump scares and haunted house hijinks. This is interesting as the first trailer took a completely different approach with its creepy atmosphere and lack of jump scares.

Roger and Carolyn Perron (played by Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) move into the old farmhouse with their daughters Andrea and Christine. Weird things start to happen such as furniture moving around and weird noises are heard around the house. As things escalate the ghost busters are called in to help. Lorraine Warren claims to be a Clairvoyant as well as a Paranormal Investigator and this element is a major part of the film. Lorraine is more sensitive to the strange goings on in the house and she will no doubt be this films female version of Basil Exposition.

The trailer is very effective and it contains enough jump scares and shocks to satisfy horror junkies. The editing is well done and the trailer makes good use of screen fades and photo footage. There is also liberal use of on-screen white flashes to add dramatic effect to the horror scenes. Unfortunately the trailer also uses some grainy Super-8 footage which looks a little fake. It looks as if the footage was filmed with a regular modern camera and then had a grain filter laid on top. The result is not very convincing but it does its job. The music starts out rather subtle and quickly becomes bombastic as the horror action is gradually shown on-screen. This is another horror movie trope but it works well. The trailer audio also contains some nice touches such as a moment where a girl  is shown speaking on-screen and then the camera cuts to the thing she is describing. As the camera cuts the girls voice becomes an echo which adds something interesting to the scene and also accentuates the camera cut itself. The trailer even uses a lens flare effect towards the end and also features rather nice intertitles. It’s a well made trailer apart from the dodgy Super-8 stuff and it features just enough effects without going over the top.

The film itself will not win any awards for originality as it looks like a regular haunted house genre effort. Thankfully The Conjuring has the benefit of a good cast and a director that is well known for making decent horror movies. Lili Taylor, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are all reliable actors and they have all been in decent horror movies before. If everyone involved with the film is on top of their game The Conjuring could turn out to be one of the better horror movies released this year.

The film will be released on July 19th so have a look at the trailer and share your thoughts.