The Conjuring

 I had heard this was a "true story" along the lines of the Amityville Horror.  When I was in the 8th grade, I recall reading the book and it was one you couldn't put down.  At one point I was pretty scared and noticed that it was 2 a.m. and I was the only one up in the house.  Good thing there were no ghosts in that house.

In The Conjuring, the house (set) just looks like it was custom-made for ghosts. Why anyone would live there is beyond me.  I kept hoping for an interesting plot twist like in Cabin in the Woods but alas none was coming.

I read recently that humans are instinctively scared of loud noises and that is used to good effect in this movie.  The clapping is used with good effect.  I was glad that I was in a theater of other people rather than poking around a dark cellar.  Why do people do that?

The Amityville angle is kind of like in the book - there's a place in the house where bad things happened.    And they throw in a rip-off of the Exorcist.  I'd hoped they would add a religious angle to it but... this is Hollywood.  That would have helped a lot.

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