October Horror Movie Challenge: The Conjuring (2013) - The Conjuring Series

The centerpiece of the Conjuring Universe, the one that started it all.

The Conjuring (2013) - Conjuring Timeline 1968-1971 

Ok. There is lot going on here. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as real-life couple and demonic investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens' investigations also gave us the Amityville Horror story and film franchises. Maybe I should have included them in this. Nah.  Lorraine Warren even makes a cameo appearance in this movie, before her passing in 2019. 

First off, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are both fantastic. I have enjoyed everything they have been in even when the surrounding movie was terrible.  This movie is not terrible. 

And honestly, the whole cast is fantastic.  Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor as the Perron parents, and Joey King as one of their daughters. All also based on real people. 

The Annabelle sub-plot is only the prologue to the main tale. 

By 2013, the haunted house genre seemed played out, but this movie really revived it. Revived isn't right, it brought back to life. And there are a lot of great scares here. The demon grabbing Christine's leg is certainly going to give someone nightmares. 

We learn the house is cursed by an accused satanic witch who killed her baby and herself in a satanic ritual at 3:07 am, when all the clocks stop. 

What makes The Conjuring stand out is the execution. James Wan stages his scares with precision. Long takes, creeping camera movement, and subtle sound design build tension until it’s unbearable and then the hammer drops. The clapping game in the cellar remains one of the best set pieces in modern horror, not because of gore or CGI, but because of its timing and restraint. 

When things happen, they happen all at once. 

Turns out the place is full of ghosts and demonic forces. 

There are a lot of parallels between this and Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist. You would be excused if you thought  they were based on the same story and told from very different points of view. 

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D

There is no end of material for either my Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT. I mean, this is a NIGHT SHIFT campaign right here. Ed and Lorriane are by the rulebook occult scholars and a psychic. The scene where the occult investigators come into the house is fantastic and feels like found footage.  Not to mention, there are more secret rooms in this house than in a Gygax dungeon.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
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