The 70’s had George Romero. The 80’s had John Carpenter. The 90’s had Wes Craven and David Cronenberg. The mantle has been passed – we have a new crown prince of Hollywood horror. His new horror film The Conjuring, which releases in India this week has no blood, no gore, no
violence, no sex, no foul language, but it was rated R in the United States for just one reason – it was too scary. But how could one make a decent horror
film without any of those elements in this day and age? The answer lies in the Malay-Aussie James Wan, whose creativity with the camera is only matched by his staggering box
office success.
Wan was just 25 when he hit the scene ten years ago with Saw, a gory low budget horror thriller that contained a genius level plot twist. The film was set almost entirely in a bathroom where two men
chained to a pipe were toyed around by a mysterious man on an audio tape. The
final reveal of the villain became iconic, as did the creepy puppet Billy. Saw spawned six subpar sequels written
and directed by other people and milked by the studio, a move that somewhat
diminished Wan’s hard earned street cred. It was probably why Wan’s next film Dead Silence, written by his Saw scribe Leigh Whannell crashed both
critically and commercially. Dead Silence
was a weird and atmospheric film but Jigsaw the serial killer from Saw had become a household name and
torture porn had become the go-to horror genre. He had created a monster of a genre and to
stay relevant, one of them had to destroy the other.
Five years and yet another bomb later, Wan reemerged with Insidious,
a hair-raising haunted house horror film that eschewed the torture porn style
of Saw and relied on old fashioned jump
scares. The film was made for a paltry $1 million and it ended up grossing 100
times that number. It was a critical darling and it ended the reign of both Saw and Paranormal Activity assembly line horror franchises. Insidious
although familiar plot wise was an engrossing watch thanks to Wan’s artistry and his flair for timing. Before getting to work on
the sequel Wan readied The Conjuring,
a 'real life based' 70’s set possession story. The results are terrifying to
say the least and Wan
has clearly established himself as the contemporary horror maestro.
Starring Patrick Wilson and Vera
Farmiga as paranormal investigators, the film abjures nearly every single
horror movie cliché known to man and offers a brand new set of scares to ensure
you stay awake through the night. Presenting Wilson and Farmiga’s characters and
the family that they investigate as ‘real life’ are more marketing bullshit than anything, but it
doesn't matter because this is a blitzkrieg of a horror movie. Like the 2006
Spanish movie El Orfanato, The Conjuring
employs a subtle approach to build up the atmosphere and the scares, this
enables Wan to cram in dozens of unexpected jolts. The difference, however, is
that the jolts are tastefully, artfully done unlike the five thousand decibel
cheap thrills that most horror films utilize. Wan reuses some of the goodies
from Dead Silence, like the terrifying
old woman and the creepy dolls, but cleverly ties them up as references,
hinting at the possibility of both films and even Insidious being set in the same universe.
The tension in the first two acts
is almost unbearable and Wan rewards the viewer with a typhoon of a third act
as a neat little bow tie. The finale is a crazy ride but the reason why it
works is that instead of an assault of overblown special effects it is staged in a claustrophobic tiny space, and it doesn't borrow from other films. So many exorcism films tanked in
the past decade because they all scrounged cliches from The Exorcist that everyone saw years ago. The Conjuring however maintains ingenuity
with the way Wan stages his spooky scenes. He doesn't need blood, gore and
language to frighten you. He simply puts a contorting person on a chair and covers
their head with a sheet and films them. He doesn't need a bathroom mirror false
scare tactic to startle you, all he uses is a music box with a tiny reflective
surface that shows something appearing behind you when the music stops. Good
luck keeping your eyes open when it does.
(First published in Firstpost)
(First published in Firstpost)
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