Which is scarier: A house full of girls or ghosts? Or my review of The Conjuring ****

The Conjuring is a…. well, is a great film. Much like my review on Elysium I was going to say “is a great horror film” but unlike my reserved genre labeling holding back my opinion of praising that film as a science fiction film, this hesitation at such labeling this as simply a great 'horror film' is actually in praise of the movie here. Horror films can so easily be dismissed onto the pile of shock gore fest splatter films and the like, that when a real well made scary film comes along, it really does stand out.

I read some other review I don’t remembers who’s but they pointed out the first thing I too noticed.  There is an opening prologue of sorts, with it’s stark title card, revealing a previous haunting that made this movie have all the earmarks of the aspirations of making a movie to the likes of The Exorcist. While it’s fails to deliver on the scale of that horror epic that fact it comes close to that cinematic high mark in terror, is something to commend indeed.

Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston playing parents of 5 girls

Compared to a movie like James Wan‘s previous excellent Insidious which dealt in parallel universes and plains of existence etc…  this one was shackled by “based on” or “inspired by” or whatever they framed this one with the “true events” setting.  And while that gray area or “dark” grey area, if you must, may extend to a lot of leeway in the levitation people and objects etc… there are some things you just want to say are true for sure, like this family had five girls… ranging from pre-school to high school age. In fact, the person I saw this with and I were humorously trying to keep track, when they had a shot of four of the girls heading to school and we thought we had it… until we were reminded of the pre-school girl! Any sane scriptwriter would have lessened the madness of the reality in this scenario!

But like when the paranormal specialists are brought in along with a local officer the actual mayhem of a simple breakfast among such a crowd was almost comical in presenting this as a real situation. But any comic relief or quite moments were certainly offset with real scares and jumps.

Lili Taylor playing Hide and Seek

One scene that puzzled me in the previews was why clapping hands would be scary, but when the girls are playing a version of hide and seek that include the three allowed clues of where you’re hiding to the seeker, the simple game takes on ominous proportions. And the jump factor still works even though you’ve seen it many times in the previews.

As film progresses you actually find time to separate out the girls, understand the foreboding of the paranormal specialist and her history, and the shear stamina of the parents played by Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston who obviously had their hands full even before they bought the to-good-to-be true countryside deal of a house from the bank.(When you buy something “as is” in an auction you’re probably hoping for some simple water damage not a house full of ghosts…) Anyway the way the interaction of all these people happen really draws you into an investment to liking these people even the paranormal investigators Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson illicit great empathy for them and all the children actresses , and so when one girl starts sleep walking, or the covers are pulled off another, or one sees a little boy in the mirror of a toy, the creepiness factor really builds.

Now eventually things build from the simple scare of a night gowned girl suddenly passing in the frame, to objects and people actually being thrown around the house, plus there’s TheSixth Sense like visions people have of past suicides and such, that build up to the real scare of the mother slowly becoming possessed by the evil presence that was supposedly the start of all the others.

Vera Farmiga               Patrick Wilson

And while it’s true most of the chills and thrills are all done without any blood and gore I suppose it’s the gruesome possession and exorcism that really give it it’s R rating.

The idea of “specialists” seems to have garnered weight ever since the creepy little lady in Poltergeist, for instance, even though the investigators  Patrick and Vera’s characters  are based on real “investigators” Ed and Lorraine Warren that wasn't important to films like the original The Amityville Horror movie even though the same two were involved in the case because at that time the only “specialist” most people associated with evil would be a priest.

Even though this movie supposedly took place around the same time as original The Exorcist that movie treated science as baffled and completely  inadequate with what cursed little Regan. Whereas this movie incorporates the sympathies of science to assure the couple that they “aren't going crazy”. With investigative tools of the time: automatic triggering camera, temperature changing sensors, and super sensitive audio equipment etc.. no infrared or ectoplasm thingamajigs of modern day, but you get the idea. But even here, of course, logic, science and all that tries to give the family foothold on sanity are subjected to pure evil that must be cast out with old fashion exorcism…

The possessed devil doll from the prologue tying in with the Warren’s daughter had some true suspension and horror to it, but was almost was like Wan had bitten off a bit more than he could chew…  unlike the mom who bit off a piece of the police officer’s cheek causing them to throw sheet over her head..ha!comic relief… So even though the daughter subplot was a stretch, and the ending is a bit extreme in it’s chaotic deliverance from evil for the family as children are trapped beneath floor boards or in the car or I forget where all, the unrivaled suspense that got us there to the turmoil and whirlwind of an ending is truly terrifying and extremely well done.

To have and (make sure) to have not… or my review of Elysium ****

Elysium is a…well, is a great movie. I hesitated there only because I was going to say  “is a great science fiction movie" and while this is most definitely a science fiction movie,  I think Neill Blomkamp had too many balls in the air for me to champion this movie as classic science fiction. From the heavy emphasis on action mixed in with all the commentary on poverty, pollution, and health care etc… he had chainsaws, bowling balls and bowling pins in the air for this juggling act… But don’t get me wrong this is about as good as it gets with film making and story telling. Personally I thought the heavy emphasis on the action made it loose some of the overall effectiveness on all the other social commentary it had going for it. To me, by definition, great social commentary is something that all great science fiction has. And while I think Neil had great aspirations for doing just that he also had an eye on the box-office potential of super-hero level box-office potential.

What's interesting is I saw this with a conservative friend who also likes science fiction but in hindsight it’s something I should have asked them about because liking science fiction HAS to be at odds with much of their regular day to day thinking .

The Elysium space station

Matt Damon

Most of the best science fiction rally against corporations out of control, or rally the against the repression of freedom of thought and expression, fighting  the corruption of power and money, human rights over misguided self righteous morals etc… all those things his political party usually stands for…. And while they were typically busy with counting the number of “F-bombs”  rather than counting the number of crimes against humanity, all the action I think helped mask the extremes of the ‘haves’ against the ‘have nots’ and it's "class warfare" message. This way it did not seem to offend their senses the way the director's previous attempt at the allegories of apartheid and all ‘the good things it had to offer’, that were so well played out in his District 9. And speaking of that movie... considering the relatively tiny budget he worked with on that one, it was very interesting to see him balance the "brain and brawn" with the slick and fantastic look of this film with it's much bigger budget.

Matt Damon  Alice Braga

But aside of all the "action versus message" in this film what I really liked was some of the turns this film took. Every time this movie started to head in a predictable direction Neil would throw in a curve ball, literally crashing things to the ground like when they were delivering the prisoners to the orbiting space station Elysium. Now there may have been a few stretches of believably in the plot where Matt Damon's character Max just happens to get a lethal dose of radiation that sends him on his suicidal mission, at the exact same time Jodie Foster's character Delacourt, the security leader of the one-precenters on Elysium is planning a coup, but these complaints are minor when dealing the humanity Matt Damon’s character builds up as Max trying to save all those on Earth in particular his childhood friend Frey(Alice Braga) and her sick daughter that needing to get to the instant healing only available on Elysium.

Jodie Foster

Now, Richard Roeper called Jodie Foster’s acting something like the worst performance in the history of film, or something like that, while Peter Travers said she was “killing it, as a Dick Cheney in heels.” I was probably somewhere in the middle. And while I would be hard pressed to particularly defend the locked jawed grit she was grinding out, the Cheney comment is laughably accurate.  In particular, I liked the fact she was not ‘chewing the scenery’ as is often the case with great actors in villainous roles.

Sharlto Copley

So the idea of how rich people really don’t care if poor people have access to medical care is scarily reflective of today’s world… just look… yet another vote by old rich white dudes against health care for the poor is in today’s headlines… and taking the idea of unregulated corporations polluting the world to climate changing levels wrapped up around several cool gun battles, and fight scenes between a exoskeleton enhanced Matt Damon and psycho villain Kruger(Sharlto Copley)  can seem a bit flippant, or incongruous, still...I walked away from this film extremely entertained and yes even intellectually challenged, so having said everything I just said, it really is a great ‘science fiction movie’… “f-bomb” ? “Was there?  ‘spose so… and how many tattoos did they have?”