Text丨Seapark
"Conjuring the Soul" is undoubtedly a golden sign in today's horror film series. This series developed by the great director of horror films Wen Ziren focuses on gimmicks adapted from real cases. The Conjuring Universe has launched six works, including two "The Conjuring" series directed by Wen Ziren himself, three "Annabelle" trilogy directed by others, and one with a rather bad review The Ghost Nun.
"The Conjuring" (2013)
This June, the orthodox sequel "The Conjuring 3" has finally returned. This time, although the male and female protagonists Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga continue to star, the director's chair But it was no longer the accomplished Wen Ziren, but replaced by the rookie director Michael Chavez born in the 1995s, which seemed to be a sign that the department was going downhill.
The Conjuring 3 (2021)
The story of the movie takes place four years after the second episode. In 1981, the Warrens performed an exorcism for an eight-year-old boy, David. On David's brother Arni. A possessed Ani goes to jail after killing his landlord. The Warrens persuade attorneys to plead not guilty to Arnie being possessed by the devil. At the same time, began to investigate the origin of the possessed demon. They discovered that this was not a simple paranormal event, but a sinister ritual performed by a premeditated satanic cult...
The Conjuring 3 is still based on a true story, this time it's the real Warrens that made their name The Arnie Johnson trial, and the subtitle of the film, "The Devil Made Me Kill People," is the most well-known defense of the trial.In 1982, the year after the trial took place, it was adapted into a TV movie "The Devil's Murder" by NBC, starring Kevin Bacon.
In 2006, the episode "The Devil's Forbidden Land" in the second season of the Discovery Channel documentary series "Ghosts and Shadows" also interviewed the parties involved in the incident, including Ani and Lorraine, but only focused on curiosity, mainly about the possessed. The story doesn't even involve a murder case. This is the third time this event has been adapted for video.
Audiences familiar with the "The Conjuring" series should know that Lorraine Warren, the archetype of the heroine played by Vera Farmiga, has always been the film consultant for the "Conjuring" series, and it is also because of her participation that this series has A lot of real history texture. In 2019, Lorraine Warren died at the age of 92, making "The Conjuring 3" the only "Conjuring" movie without her official participation.
Lorraine Warren (left)
The Warrens were controversial figures in history. When the two were alive, they were considered by many to be supernatural liars, and their ghost theory was not supported by substantial evidence. Compared with research, the two are more interested in going acupoints and developing novels and movies of their own stories, more like entertainment scientists who rely on spirituality to get out of the circle.
There are many first-hand accounts of the Arnie Johnson trial in history. The case was a sensation in the news at the time. Later, Lorraine assisted Gerald Breiter in writing the incident into a report. The literature "Evil Ghosts of Connecticut" was a sensation back then, but it also led to a lot of lawsuits involving the fact that the parties said it was inconsistent with the facts.
The Warren couple
may be the addition of Lorraine, which makes the first two episodes of the movie still outrageous compared to reality, but at least most of the details are in line with Lorraine's own description, the plot in the movie is also in Lorraine's The book is well documented. This combination of reality and reality has made the "Soul Conjuring" series. Subtitles are used extensively in the movie to explain the historical background. The half-truth and half-truth are combined with real characters and places, making the entire "Conjuring" universe and us instantly closer.
"The Conjuring" (2013)
But at the same time, the universe of "Conjuring" has a sense of distance from the modern audience. It sets the time in the pre-information explosion period of the 1970s and 1980s. Without mobile phones and the Internet, people are still ignorant of the unknown. Full of fear, coupled with the dim yellow tone and nostalgic setting carefully adjusted by Wen Ziren, the audience is transported into another fantasy time and space that is not so far away in a second.
It can be said that the "Conjuring" universe is the Jin Yong novel in horror movies. You know that the stories it tells are all surreal, but in a real and slightly distant historical environment, the audience will still be immersed in it and willing to actively believe in the creator's artistic processing.
"The Conjuring" (2013)
But it is also the boundary between the real and the fictional of , which is the most difficult to control. For the first time, "The Conjuring 3" did not have Lorraine's supervision, nor Wen Ziren's helm at the helm, and replaced it with a new director. From one aspect, fresh blood is added, and the degree of creative freedom is higher, but from another aspect , it is also possible to completely let go of the self, making the story more and more detached from reality. Judging from the final film of "The Conjuring 3", it can only be said that the new director Chavez did not grasp the scale well.
When watching the trailer, many viewers will think that this episode is a story about a court trial, but in fact, the real history is only up to the court hearing, and then the Warrens investigate the mastermind behind the scenes. The part of Satanism worship is It is entirely the self-play of the director and has absolutely no basis in history. It also makes the whole film a combination of a small amount of reality and a large part of fiction, almost completely out of the series' usual practice.
Although there are still traditional plots such as Devil Possession, the biggest change Chavez made to the series is actually to change the haunted house theme that Wen Ziren is good at into a brand new cult theme, if we say in the first two episodes If the villain is still a monster, then the protagonist in this episode is facing a human being of flesh and blood.
It is not accidental that Wen Ziren chooses the haunted house. He is good at using the lens to show the complex structure of the house, and he is also good at using the space to create a terrifying atmosphere, and then constructing dark corners with lights to hide the horror in it. In the first episode, the constantly extinguished matches in the basement are the most intuitive manifestation of its exquisite design.
"The Conjuring" (2013)
The house is supposed to be a warm haven, but it is also a building with an unknown history. We cannot understand the past of an old house, nor can we easily abandon the "home" we built by ourselves. ”, such a contradiction makes the haunted house naturally full of conflicts. In fact, the monster in Wen Ziren's haunted house movie is actually the house itself.
But in "The Conjuring 3", the protagonist moved into the room, and slowly paved the way for an abnormality. The story routine that finally broke out was abandoned, and it entered the climax of exorcism from the very beginning.Until Ani kills, the first act constituted is actually an advance of the third act of the first two episodes. After Lorraine found the cursed props in the underground of the house, the story entered the second act, from the haunted house to the suspense drama. Arni goes to jail, the story barely takes place in the mansion, into forests, cities and morgues, and the protagonists no longer fight the devil, but try to find a mastermind who controls everything.
However, the "Conjuring" series is not " Sherlock Holmes ", and reasoning and suspense is not the strong point of Chavez, who is a visual effects guide. In the end, it was only a simple railway and the sound of water to determine the location of the Satan altar, and it ended in haste . From the beginning to the end, there is almost no introduction to the villain's motivation and character history. She just wants to create chaos, and there is no other reason for the crime. For the audience, such an explanation is far from enough. In the first two episodes of
, what is really impressive is not only the horror scenes, but also the rich layering brought by Wen Ziren's well-designed subplots and strange monster shapes. In the first episode, interspersed with Warren's basement and Annabelle's doll's sub-line; in the second episode, Lorraine explored the past of the ghost nun's story, and finally combined with the main line, with an admirable structure.
But in this episode, the villain's motive is unknown, and the monster is almost completely absent. We only know that the villain has summoned the devil, but the audience knows almost nothing about the background and appearance of the devil. This is not only the screenwriter and visual design. Laziness also greatly weakened the impact on the audience.
so weakened the plot and creativity, the deep-seated reason is also attributable to the production level.By the third episode of the series, streaming distribution has become dominant, no doubt allowing production companies New Line and Warner to lower their investment in the film, returning the series to low-budget B-level production once again. Instead of adding a lot of special effects like the first two episodes, this episode is better to choose a cheaper director, and the script is also closer to simpler suspense. The only guarantee is the return of the two leading actors, so that the audience can continue to believe that this is an orthodox sequel film.
This is also a common problem faced by many horror film sequels. "Ghost Invasion 2", "The Shining 2", " A Quiet Place 2" and " Chainsaw 9" cannot continue the high reputation of the series, even In terms of cost, a discount must also be made. After all, no matter how good the idea is, it cannot withstand repeated repetitions. It is actually very difficult to maintain the audience's novelty to the series. After Wen Ziren led a wave of A-level horror film production, he realized the scarcity of good ideas and the inability to replicate successful models, so he lowered his requirements and just wanted to squeeze out a little more residual value.
However, this episode directed by Chavez is not without merit. At least he has achieved the sublimation of the Warren couple's love, and the whole movie has also been designed as a huge test of their love. Let the audience find the "sugar" they want in familiar characters. The scene in the flashback where the two met when they were young in the cinema is almost entirely faithful to the character archetype story. The details of the lines of
also reflect the deep love between the two. There is a small stalk that is not easy to find, but it can make people smile. Lorraine joked that she had seen both the living Elvis and the dead Elvis.And "Elvis" here may not refer to the real singer "Elvis", but Ed who played the guitar and sang the Elvis song "Can't help falling in love with you" in " The Conjuring 2" Warren. Once you think of this, it can be said to be an explosion of sweetness.
"The Conjuring 2" (2016)
In the era of the new crown, people have seen the real hell on earth, and horror movies are actually far less shocking than those small videos circulating on the Internet. Jump scare is getting more and more annoying at first glance. The successful horror films in recent years, such as "The Witch", "Doom Inheritance", "Us" and "The Lighthouse" have actually entered the category of art films, and traditional horror films are destined to become evil only for a small number of people in the future. taste.
"Inheritance of Doom" (2018)
In the foreseeable future, this genre will definitely become cheaper and more Internet-based, becoming the title party and gimmick movie that Netflix and HBO MAX continue to mass-produce. Breaking away from the mainstream and returning to the B-level is the real destination of this traditional type of film.
