Kermode Uncut: The Conjuring

[Music] [Music] [Music] there's a new horror-film opening soon you must've heard about able to see the posters seen the adverts read the news stories it's called the conjuring and it's been in the news because it cost very little 20 million it took that pretty much in its first day of opening in America and it's become a very financially successful film it's but some trains because actually summer is not generally when you open big horror movies but it's a film that is tracked very well with preview audiences and it paid off they've opened it in the summer and it's taken good money it's got very good reviews variety really really liked it loads and loads of very influential critics of sung it's praises comparisons have been made this it's like The Exorcist meets Amityville meets poltergeist which is strange because actually I don't think those three films have got anything in common at all the Amityville connection is fairly simple because the film is based on a true story it's the Warrens who are a couple who investigate paranormal activity and they were involved in the Amityville case and this is apparently a case that happened before that that was so terrifying so really overpoweringly scary that they kept quiet about it they didn't publicize it until now now finally the full story can be told and I saw the film I saw it in a packed screening in in Leicester Square in the West End of London and you know I mean I like horror films I'm a big horror film fan I always go into them wanting to be scared I'd heard good things about this in advance but here's what's interesting I watched the film I thought it was very flawed I mean it worth it was very cliche died most of the riffs before it did look like a collection of ideas from other films rather than the Exorcist meets Amityville meet poltergeist its ideas you've seen expressed in all those films before but it was technically perfectly well done did the usual thing about starting quietly and then just descending into special effects may have even though all views have said that it doesn't the interesting thing was this the audience was terribly badly behaved they were on their phones texting actually talking on their mobile phones taking calls which was outrageous and I can't stand that kind of behavior in the cinema but I do understand it sometimes in relation to horror films I remember seeing the Evil Dead in a cinema in Manchester back in the 1980s and the audience was incredibly noisy largely because they were absolutely terrified it was that classic thing with the horror movie something really scary would happen everyone would shriek everyone would scream and then afterwards they'd laugh and they'd sort of talk to each other to kind of calm themselves down you know Wow oh and there's a little babble afterwards and that didn't bother me at all because that seemed to be perfectly in keeping with the way I felt about the film I went to sit with my my friend Phil and actually we pretty much did the same thing something really scary would happen the new turn and talk in the case of this however I ended up thinking haven't I outgrown the horror genre I don't find this scary at all it's just a series of quiet bits with loud bangs and quite a bit but I don't believe the story and I don't believe the character they're very well played incidentally I mean good actors good performance who I like but I don't believe any of it and incidentally I don't believe the Amityville stuff either and yet it was working with the audience the audience were terribly badly behaved they were talking they were breaking the code they were using their phones they were eating the noisiest snacks available but at every jump they were shrieking and jumping and screaming and then doing that strange laughter thing afterwards and it brought me to the conclusion that there's a difference between seeing a horror film as a horror fan and seeing a horror film as somebody who doesn't go to horror movies you see my feeling is that most of the people who are in that screening I attended don't go and see horror movies they wouldn't have seen field in England for example and in fact if they'd started watching it they would've been bored out of their mind one of the scariest things I've seen recently is that scene in the field in England he comes out of the tent with that demonic grin on his face in slow motion I'm almost having nightmares about that scene there's nothing at all in the country that I remembered more than five minutes after seeing the film but it was working for everyone else so here's what I want to know having seen the posters and read the newspaper articles and seen the TV ads do you want to go and see the country he's in a film which appeals to you because you know my feeling is that most of people who come here to the commode uncut slider probably the horror of Chania Center I mean probably a lot of people who really really like horror film so do you want to go and see the countries is it at people too and if you do go and see it when it opens let me know whether you found it scary see I've had a really strange experience of sitting there and I said about being increasingly disconnected from the film not being scared by it really wanting to be scared by it wishing that it terrified me but it didn't and yet understanding that for everyone else in the audience people who I'm pretty sure we're not horror fans people I'm pretty sure if you showed them a field in England they'd get bored or walk out they were jumping they were screaming they were shrieking it was working for them why isn't it working for me if you see the film when it scares you tell me what am I missing [Music] you

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 59,838

Keywords: Kermode Uncut, Blog, Mark Kermode, BBC Radio 5 Live, Simon Mayo, The Conjuring, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, Ed and Lorraine Warren, James Wan, Paranormal Activity, Vera Farmiga, Evil Dead, A Field In England

Id: F62INUxIFxo

Length: 5min 45sec (345 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 30 2013