'The Conjuring' Redefines the Horror Genre Once Again
On July 19th audiences will be able to feel the chills in director James Wan´s new horror masterpiece, The Conjuring, a horror movie that combines the frightening style of the haunted house genre and the horrific experiences of an exorcism all in one chilling film. The Conjuring stars Academy Award nominee Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air,” TV’s “Bates Motel”) and Patrick Wilson (“Insidious,”) as Ed and Lorraine Warren, and Ron Livingston (“The Odd Life of Timothy Green”) and Lili Taylor (TV’s “Hemlock Grove”) as Roger and Carolyn Perron, residents of the house.
Entertainment Affair had the chance to sit down with the talented director and cast at the recent San Francisco press day. Check out highlights from the Q&A below.
Wan, a young filmmaker but almost a veteran in scaring audiences world wide with such titles as Saw, Insidious and Insidious Chapter Two (soon to be released), started by telling us how he became interested in developing this project and how it has been something that he had been waiting to do for a while. “I´ve been fascinated with the Warrens since I was a kid in high school I saw them, or actors playing them, in a little made for TV movie called ‘The Hunted’ starring Sally Kirkland and as it turned out the movie was based on one of the Warren’s cases. Their characters had a little cameo in that film and ever since then I´ve been very intrigued by who they are and what they do,” he said.
The director went on to explain that although he has been tracking the Warrens for a long time, he never had the chance to meet them prior to this movie. He went on telling us his approach to this particular horror movie based on true events. “It is a story about two sets of family; when Vera, Patrick, Ron, Lili and myself first approached this film we didn´t kind of go in thinking that we were making a horror movie per se, we went in basically wanting to make a drama film about two sets of families dealing with what they´re dealing with, and them coming together in the movie, basically strength and unity. It just so happens that what they were dealing with is just of the supernatural.”
He talked about the cast and the challenges of making a horror story that involves so many characters. The Perrons have five daughters played by Joey King, Shanley Caswell, Haley McFarland, Mackenzie Foy and newcomer Kyla Deaver. Wan first mentioned how working with children in a horror movie was easier than he thought it would be. “These kid actors, they were so incredible, they were so professional, they would cry and scream and get so freaked out during shooting right, the moment I called cut they turn to the camera and go [laugh].” He mentioned that he was amazed of how easy they could disconnect from all aspects of playing a role in a scary movie. “It’s amazing how much they could differentiate that what they are doing is just acting, that they´re making a movie and having fun.”
Wan went on to talk about other members of the cast and how they were all up to the task of portraying such complex and disturbed characters with the added challenge that they represent real people. “I´m very fortunate with my cast because you know Ron and Lili did such an amazing job as well.” He explained that a good example of the challenge for the actors was Ron Livingston´s character, Roger Perron, due to the fact that he had less screen time and a lot to show. “I actually think you know that Ron has one of hardest tasks to do in this film in that his character actually doesn´t have that much screen time just because he is playing the father who was away from the family a lot, the few scenes that he was around he had to convey a lot across.”
He continued praising his cast while he explained his impressions on each one, when it came to leading actress Vera Farmiga he said, “I think Vera is super talented and I wanted an actress that could help me embody Lorraine. So someone with strength but yet vulnerable at the same time so when all the scary stuff starts to happen you can believe that what she´s going through is frightening for her.”
Farmiga, also a veteran actress within the horror genre most recently for her role as Norma Bates, the mother of serial killer Norman Bates in Bates Motel, believes that this movie offered something different for her. “I think in ‘Bates Motel’ the monster is human, what´s so monstrous is his human madness and neurological dysfunction and here we are dealing with the inhuman. I think it’s two totally different stories and kinds of stories and kinds of horror.” Farmiga, who was sitting down next to Lorraine Warren, the woman she portrays in the movie, mentioned that the fact that she was playing a real person was most gratifying. “What I love is this fascinating woman to my right and embodying her it was a treat for me.”
Since The Conjuring is based on a case that real life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren went through, Wan explained that it presented a different challenge for him where in he could not go on and expand too far away from the core of the story as to not disrespect its characters mainly. “I really wanted to make a movie that honors the stories that these two families were telling me, telling us as filmmakers. I wanted to do them justice there and be respectful for the world that they came from.” So his approach was more sincere and instead he centered his efforts on using the elements already present within horror genres but to the best of his ability. “I know a lot of people have said I´m reinventing the wheel here which I´m not, because it deals with a lot of the classic tropes that we´ve come to associate with the haunted house genre; doors slamming shut, things falling out, things flying right, these things that the families tell us about. I felt that the thing that I could bring to it is how I show it to you right, how I present it to you, how I stage my sequences of the cricking door, of looking under the bed and stuff like that.”
The Conjuring delivers shocks by playing with your mind and is sure to impress audiences worldwide. Make sure not to miss it if you are a fan of being scared at the movies.