Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Everyone Loves It but Me The Conjuring (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS I didn't love The Conjuring (112 minutes), but that doesn't mean it was a bad film. My high expectations for director James Wan, combined with the unfortunate religious angle turned this from a potentially great movie into something merely good. The film had nice atmosphere, and house was as good as having an extra character along for the ride. The well-timed exposure of the Big Bad ghost combined with the ability of child actor Joey King to convey I'm-soterrified-my-lungs-are-shutting-down made the film work in spite of Patrick Wilson not quite knowing what to do with his portrayal of Ed Warren. The story begins with the Perron family moving into a big scary farmhouse in Rhode Island. Roger Perron (Ron Livingston) is a long-haul trucker going through some sort of career low, so he bought the house at an auction without bothering to find out how many people had been murdered there. It is 1971, and without the Internet it was probably a little bit harder to check that sort of thing, not to mention that the story predates the creation of most "stigmatized property" laws … but it seems like a smart idea to at least check out the history at the local library. As demonstrated later in the film, it's not that hard to find out information about the scary old house where people get murdered a lot. So maybe try that before you move in haste and then need to call in the psychics. Anyway, the family moves in. The children play hide-and-clap, thus setting up a nice scare later in the movie (though The Orphanage used the same sort of game much more effectively). That night, Christine (King) feels something pulling at her feet. Instead of immediately covering herself in the 'monster force field' of a nice blanket, she persists in dangling her little pink toes temptingly for any demon or ghost that happens by. Standard ghost-y stuff begins occurring. Doors open and close themselves, April (Kyla Deaver) acquires an invisible friend, Andrea (Shanley Caswell) smells mysterious fart odors, Cindy (Mackenzie Foy) sleepwalks, clocks stop at 3:07 a.m., and so on. When the family realizes the amount of danger they are in, Carolyn calls in the psychics. The entire movie is based on the case files (not to be confused with The X-Files) of Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). They have ties to the Catholic Church and a locked room full of evil objects, like the vault of cursed antiques in that show Friday the 13th: The Series. They apparently earn a comfortable living and pay for their nice house and parapsychology gear by offering lectures on all the exorcisms and ghosts they know about, so I am sure they have no reason to create the impression that ghosts exist when in fact, they do not. They offer to set up equipment to document the haunting so the Church will approve an exorcism, but since the Church takes forever to do anything, the Warren's end up taking care of business all by themselves. Overall, anytime I walk out of the film and then hesitate at the door before using the ladies room, the horror film was good. When I get into the ladies room and feel the need to check the stalls for ghostly feet before going in, the horror film was very good. Too bad this one lost a star for the hokey exorcism scenes. Now showing at Wynnsong HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandMarket Fair 15. comingweekly.com. FREE Community Papers FREE Community Papers Because sometimes the world is... Because sometimes the world is... ...right where you live. ...right where you live. IN THE MORNING Weekdays 5:30AM to 10:00AM WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM "74.4% of Community Paper Readers "74.4% of CommunityDecisions from Make Their Buying Paper Readers Make Advertising and Editorial Content." Free PaperTheir Buying Decisions from Free Paper Advertising and Editorial Content." Paper Name Address Paper Name Phone Address www.upandcomingweekly.com Phone 910.484.6200 Connecting a Community Connecting a Community CSCSG CSCSG AUGUST 14-20, 2013 UCW 21