James Wan’s blockbuster horror offering The Conjuring thrilled audiences and created a cinematic universe but for Andrea and Alex it left an icky feeling that has nothing to do with demonic possession. By investigating the politics, means and ideology behind the film, they’ll uncover the true villains behind this narrative.
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REQUIRED READING
The Conjuring. Dir. James Wan, 2013.
EXTRA CREDIT
War Over ‘The Conjuring’: The Disturbing Claims Behind a Billion-Dollar Franchise. Hollywood Reporter’s Investigation into the claims made about the real-life Warrens.
Scared Sacred: Idolatry, Religion and Worship in the Horror Film. The essay collection featuring Alex’s chapter on The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2.
LISTEN
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This is a rocking episode! My favorite line, “Heternormativite peace was brought about through Jesus” (rough paraphrase). I had to pause the recording until I stopped laughing.
I saw the Warrens at Youngtown State U. in 1978 I think. It was fun but I had a lot of unanswered questions. When I did a little research on them I was gobsmacked and disappointed. Ugh. You did a wonderfully broad-ranging treatment of the film and their actual lives – nicely done.
The stumbling blocks you note (e.g., Catholicism) are biggees. As you discussed, it could have been a great ghost story without the “Based on some events” part.
Thanks again for zeroing in on the truth. I don’t know if it sets us free but it is the most important thing in navigating this 4-dimensional, existential three-ring circus.
The MPAA’s official statement on the film essentially does say it’s just too intense and scary to have a rating less than R.
James Wan really is one of the most effective horror directors out there. I guess it’s sad for you that you can’t enjoy his craftsmanship when paired with the Warrens’ whitewashed presentation of themselves. I don’t have high expectations for the “message” of scripted movies, since they’re all just entertaining fictions.
It doesn’t seem that bizarre to me that Warner Brothers agreed to Lorraine Warren’s contractual terms since this became a very successful franchise with a total of eight films released so far. That bet absolutely paid off and any executive who recommended not signing it would put a big black mark on their record there.
I wouldn’t agree that religion is a “red herring” in The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty was serious about it), but it’s definitely more sophisticated than The Conjuring. The Conjuring seems more like it was intended to be a PG-13 horror movie that kids could watch.
In something of a coincidence, the most recent episode of the “How Have You Not Seen” podcast was also on The Conjuring. It was quite a contrasting take:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conjuring-2013/id1200389003?i=1000674646994
Loved this episode as I have longed found Wan and his stable of creatives unimpressive and assembly-line. The best moment in The Conjuring is the very effective one in the kids’ room when they can’t quite tell if there is something in the shadows or it’s just darkness. Outside of that it’s a parade of jump scares that wear off in effectiveness rapidly with me. My view changed a little when I heard of a critic detail how sitting in the cinema with a crowd of people engaged both with one of these movies and their phones at the same time brought it all into perfect sense. Scroll scroll scroll BAM scroll scroll scroll BAM! While that’s not for me, I think it’s a perfectly apt way of making a film for an audience. As for the Warrens, meh.