The Conjuring: Does for "hanging out the washing" what Jaws did for swimming

To coin a cliché: The Conjuring does for “hanging washing on the line” what Jaws did for swimming.

What's The Conjuring about?

The Conjuring is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan and written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes. It is the inaugural film in the Conjuring Universe franchise. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of haunting. Their purportedly real-life reports inspired The Amityville Horror story and film franchise. The Warrens come to the assistance of the Perron family, who experienced increasingly disturbing events in their farmhouse in Rhode Island in 1971.

Development of the film began in January 2012, and reports confirmed Wan as the director of a film entitled The Warren Files, later retitled The Conjuring, centering on the alleged real-life exploits of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married couple who investigated paranormal events. In his second collaboration with Wan, Patrick Wilson starred alongside Vera Farmiga in the main roles of Ed and Lorraine. Production commenced in Wilmington, North Carolina, in February 2012, and scenes were shot in chronological order.

The Conjuring was released in the United States and Canada on July 19, 2013, by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances, direction, screenplay, atmosphere, and musical score. It grossed over $319 million worldwide against its $20 million budget. A sequel, The Conjuring 2, was released on June 10, 2016.

Is James Wan's The Conjuring any good?

The craft – if not the art – of a great horror flick skitters around Saw creator James Wan's new popcorn-spiller. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real-life paranormal investigators who in the early 1970s helped the Perron family (led here by Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) rid their Rhode Island pad of a demon, before clearing up at Amityville. The beast roves the house, as bashful about its hell-raising as Wan is about reeling off genre tropes: slamming doors, stopping clocks and smashing family photos.

The Conjuring was a huge hit in the US, perhaps because it plays to sceptics and believers alike; there's never any question that what we're seeing might be absurd or imaginary. The Warrens – religious folk concerned for their victims' souls (their church attendance is patchy) – are presented as dedicated professionals, rather than kooks, weirdos or (whisper it) hucksters. But the 70s setting, paired with the cheapish visual effects, helps the thing scramble along like a fleshed-out episode of Scooby Doo. Wan's shocks are predictable but – yikes! – are they scary.

Review by Henry Barnes.