The Conjuring: Can a Movie Be Too Scary?

Can a movie be too scary? If you’d asked me just this morning, I would’ve chuckled a “no” because, as I’m often fond of telling friends who get all freaked out at horror movies, a movie’s never really frightened me.Movies have shocked me and grossed me out, sure.  The Exorcist is really well-made and compelling, but not particularly scary. I’d always admit that The Night of the Living Dead came closest to scaring me, and that was in part due to the near-documentary look of it and seeing it at a young age. But, no, I’ve never thought movies were truly scary.Until I saw The Conjuring.This one took me by surprise, as I’d not read much about it, and had seen just a snippet of a television commercial. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, though, especially when I remembered why I recognized director James Wan’s name: he helmed the first Saw movie. Granted, that one is the least terrible of that ugly franchise, but the whole mainstream torture porn horror industry that sprung up from it was an incredibly negative thing in my eyes, so I just expected some gross outs and nastiness from The Conjuring.What unfolded instead was a very deliberately-paced movie that begins with its version of a James Bond pre-credits sequence, introducing us to the heroes of the movie, demonologists Ed and Lauren Warren (a never-better Patrick Wilson and truly affecting Vera Farmiga), having a creepy possessed doll adventure that is fairly unrelated to the main plot. Then we get text explaining that these are real people, and the following movie is based upon a true story that took place in the glorious fashion horror show that is the 1970s. I don’t know how much was changed or embellished by the filmmakers, but this gave the movie an air of authenticity that added to the experience.