The Conjuring

Azfar Choudhury
 Summary of the film
Conjuring
In 1971, Carolyn and Roger Perron move their family
into a dilapidated Rhode Island farm house and soon
strange things start happening around it with
escalating nightmarish terror. In desperation, Carolyn
contacts the noted paranormal investigators, Ed and
Lorraine Warren, to examine the house. What the
Warrens discover is a whole area steeped in a satanic
haunting that is now targeting the Perron family
wherever they go. To stop this evil, the Warrens will
have to call upon all their skills and spiritual strength
to defeat this spectral menace at its source that
threatens to destroy everyone involved.
 Mise-en-Scene
At the beginning of The Conjuring we are presented with a
very normal, family like setting. This has purposely been
done to mislead the audience into believing the film may
not be as scary as they originally thought. However, it also
builds up a sense of safety for the audience whilst
watching it, to then shock them even more when the
horrors begin. Unlike, The Woman in Black who jumps
straight into the scary features, The Conjuring almost
suggests its a happy, family orientated film. Showing a
calm and typical family life leaves the audience guessing
and also being suspicious. The house looks very well kept
and you could even say it looks like a large dolls house,
which is why the audience would be even more taken back
by the events which occur there.
 Editing
Continuity editing is used editors who create film trailers.
Continuity is achieved by cutting and helps to emphasise the
transition of time and space. It has been used in The Conjuring, as
the trailer shows goes from showing Ed and Lorraine Warren being
paranormal researchers, to showing past images of the Warrens to
transitioning into them now giving a lecture to a class of students.
The editing used emphasis the fact that rime has passed without
actually telling the audience. Pace Slow motion/pace is be used in
horror film trailers to help build tension. The use of slow pace is
likely to have an impact on the audience because it leaves them
feeling on edge and anxious about what is going to happen next.
Whereas towards the end of horror trailers the pace increases, the
shots are ended so that they only appear for a 1 or 2 seconds. This
makes this section of the trailer very dramatic and tense and
includes the implied violence in the film.
 Camera Shots
Zoom - This adds to the dramatic effect and creates
element of suspense and fear as you dont know what you
are going to see next. It could also be used to zoom into
something gory or gruesome. One other use could be that
you zoom into see something you wouldnt of spotted
before like a supernatural being.
Close ups in these types of genres are used to see
reactions on the actor/actresses face. This is the shot that
shows the most emotion from the characters. It is also used
to capture detail in an important scene.
Low angle shots are very powerful in the way they can
emphasize just how scary or intimidating a villain is. This
could make you as the audience as well as the
actors/actresses in the film feel weak and insignificant.
 Sound
The frequent near-silence that penetrates the
storys central haunted house: to create the idea
of a place that hums with danger. The sound
team literally built in humming, a deep vibration
in the bass that frequently crops up just to mess
with our perception. Theres the hard flatness of
the normal sounds, which produces horrifying
sensations into the ears. The sound contributes
significantly to the feeling that this house where
so much of the films terror occurs is a dead,
suffocating place. The sound, thus, succeeds in
creating the overall aura of the film.