The Conjuring (2013) review

Ghost hunter Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) looks for the reflection
of slain child Rory in a haunted music box.

Very few films achieve perfection. There are even fewer in my beloved yet beleaguered horror genre, but James Wan's The Conjuring comes very close. The last horror film I called "Flawless" was Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense (1999) so they are quite few and very far between. There are a couple of issues not the least of which is the title.  Conjuring means bringing into existence. Nothing is ever conjured in the movie, but I suppose the title, The Haunting, was taken.
Speaking of The Haunting, The Conjuring stars Lili Taylor who graced the horror scene by confronting the gruesome tyrant, Hugh Craine also back in 1999. The Conjuring also stars Ron Livingston, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
The story centers around one of the, until now, lesser known adventures of real-life ghost hunting power couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren. They are best known for their investigation of The Amityville Haunting. These two are hardcore. They've seen and confronted things that would make Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson crap themselves. Not only that, they kept a museum of haunted cursed and possessed objects... In their home!

In the 1970s, the Perron family, Roger, Carolyn and their five daughters came to the Warren family in desperation for help dealing with the disturbances in their new home. The Warrens reluctantly agree to help settle the nerves of the terrorized family by finding what was likely to be a rational and mundane explanation for the disturbances. The warrens quickly find to their own dread that they are dealing with not only several bona fide ghosts but also a demonic presence, the latter generating the former by driving each successive inhabitant of the house to murder and suicide.


Who you gonna Call?... Somebody else!

The Conjuring achieves something few movies have since The Exorcist, frisson. If you let it take you in, it will actually scare you. The scene pictured above with the haunted music box brought a auditorium full of jaded adults and chatty teenagers alike to absolute silence for half a minute. As Lorraine turned the mirror back and forth trying to see the ghastly visage of Rory, the ghost of a child who was slain in the Thirties, nobody in the theatre was breathing.
One of the scariest things a film can do is convince the audience that it is real. The Conjuring is based on a true story and not even loosely. There is some license and liberties are taken but for the most part, this actually happened. The story is plausible, subtle and most of all relatable. It takes us back to our greatest childhood fears of ghosts and goblins lurking in the dark of our bedrooms, under the bed, and in the basement.
One of the liberties, and in my opinion for the better, is the appearance of the iconic Annabelle Doll.

 

The real Annabelle Doll (left) and the version depicted in the movie

 

 

You can see the real thing, though more dangerous is just too innocuous looking for audiences to take seriously. One of the flaws of the film is a scene with the doll that had great potential but probably should have been cut. Though iconic to the film, the story of the doll is peripheral and incidental. During the climax, the doll appears to escape from its case to wreak havoc on the children of the ghost hunting couple. The main antagonist, the Bathsheba Witch also appears in the Warrens' home holding the doll, but at the same time is busy possessing Mrs. Perron (Lili Taylor). When the Warrens burst into the room to save the day, they find the demonic doll back in her case, so it isn't clear what really happened. This tangent though it had the potential to further agitate the audience by attacking on a second front, isn't developed and serves to confuse rather than enhance the story.

Overall, The Conjuring achieves the status of "Nearly Flawless" and I highly recommend seeing it on the big screen while you can. I give it nine out of ten stars. 

The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie Audiobook review Spoilers

 

Sheri Moon Zombie as Heidi Hawthorne. Frustratingly,
this scene isn't in the book.

 

My first gripe about starting a new audio book is usually " I hate this narrator," This one, Erin Bennet does a fair job letting me know which character is speaking through her performance. When she is just narrating she sounds just like Siri.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Heidi
She died. The end.

Wow! What an unbelievably shitty ending. Let me sum it up for you. The story is all about a chick named Heidi (Sherri Zombie in the movie). Heidi is the descendent of the judge in the Salem witch trials and executions. For some 320 years the victims, who in this story were far from innocent, have plotted to take their revenge. Without... a breath of explanation how, these victims (their leader, Margaret Morgan played by the lovely Meg Foster in the movie) now inhabit the bodies of modern day "witches". I should mention, Zombie does manage to make a one line distinction between Wicca and whatever these people are to be called. Satanist would be a little more accurate, but even the followers of LaVey's doctrines are really just secular humanist atheists.
These "witches" are real life, bona fide ritual-murdering devil-worshiping pagans. Ok back to the ending.

Evil Lyn's bad hair day. Meg Foster as Margaret Morgan.

 Rob Zombie for ten hours of audio, puts us in the life of Miss Heidi. We get to know her, her friends, her dog etcetera. Then in the span of half an hour, kills everyone. The Ahab of the story is the first to go. Francis Mathias, the historian tries to warn Heidi, but the witches kill him. Her friend Whitey tries to save her... but the witches kill him. Her friend Herman (The massive Ken Foree. Surely he's not going down like a little bitch ::cough Joe Grizzly cough::) tries to save her but... the witches kill him. This pattern getting old yet? And then finally the witches... kill Heidi. The End.

Don't get me wrong. I like Rob Zombie! I loved Ho1KC, I loved Rejects, I loved Halloween! I wanted so badly to like this but it blows. Oh and if you're reading/listening or watching for Sid Haig and Berryman, they get it in the first chapter/ 15 minutes. Save your money or Audible credit and especially ten hours of your life. Now, I have not yet seen the movie so I can't speak to it. Rob hasn't disappointed me as a director yet, only as a novelist. However as this "book" is just a movie adaptation, that is a literal translation of a film onto the page, I can't expect the film to be much better.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731697/combined also now playing in theaters. Maybe I'll wait til next week and use a free pass just to kill two more hours.



Ken Foree. NO body messes with Ken Foree... Right?

He wears a dirty brown hat...

Earlier, I promised to expound on the concept of the Jungian Shadow. If you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan and student of Jungian Psychology, especially as it relates to dream interpretation. I wouldn't presume to call myself an expert by any stretch, my formal studies don't extend past PSYCH101, so if you're qualified feel free to correct anything I get wrong.

 Just what is The Shadow? It is a very specific personification of what Freud called the Id. It is the underlying primal repressed and vehemently denied part of ourselves we can scarcely bear to admit. We spend our lives, up until what Jung called individualization, a sort of psychological coming of age, growing up as it were, fighting and running from this dream monster until we finally realize there is no defeating it, because it is ourselves.

So who is my Shadow? The title of this post should give you a clue. Jung gave us two more qualifications for narrowing it down. It will be the same gender as the patient, in my case male, and it will be the last person you would ever want to be. I can only presume it doesn't have to be a real person because in my case, I had spent many a nightmare for twenty-five years (8-33 years old) fighting and running from the worst monster I can imagine.

"He wears a dirty brown hat. He's horribly burned. He has razors on his right hand. His name is Freddy Krueger."


"THIS is God now..."

 I am a fan of the series though I honestly hate the character. I can't pass up a chance to watch any of the ANOES movies though, needless to say, I rooted for Jason in FVJ. He epitomises ugliness, cowardice, and cruelty, three traits I hate the most about myself when I'll admit them at all. Confrontation with one's Shadow is like facing the Magic Mirror Gate in The Neverending Story. "Confronted with their true selves, most men run away screaming,"

Atreu facing the Magic Mirror Gate in The Neverending Story

 Over the years, he became nearly ubiquitous in my dreams. Even when the dreams weren't about him or nightmares at all, sometimes he was just there. Once in my early days of studying lucidity and dream control I found I could produce lightning from my fingertips as a weapon. Yes, just like the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. I used it on him and appeared to have destroyed him with it as I didn't see him for a long time afterwards. It was only last year I believe I have seen the last of my Shadow. I dreamed, very graphically I recall I watched another monster, it may as well be Jason Voorhees, crushed his skull and tore his heart out. Then I ate his heart. It has been over a year and I havent seen him again. I didn't see him for so long I actually missed him, until one dream, I caught a glimpse of him in my own reflection. It was then I realized, I hadn't defeated him or temporarily subdued him as before with the lightning. I could only see him in my reflection because I have merged with him. I have accepted and admitted him and his three traits as an inexorable part of myself. I am ugly, cruel, a coward and a liar. The only way to change is to acknowledge the things you don't like about yourself.

Lost Boys Dream

This morning, I had an amazing semi-lucid dream. It was induced by the 'hour of wakefulness' rule. That's a theory in the realm of oneirology that one way to induce lucidity is to go back to sleep after being awake for about an hour.  I only explain in case there's someone who can't figure that out from the name, and to take up space so my blog is more than a few lines.

There were parts of this dream on either side, before and after but they were less memorable. I found myself at a restaurant on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (Santa Carla in the movie). My mother was with me, though I don't recall actually seeing her. A group of teenage boys passed by the door where we were still standing before finding a table. I recognised them as The Lost Boys (from the movie of the same name. If you're not familiar, do yourself a favor and get familiar. It was lauded by the late great Sam Kinison as "The coolest movie ever made" and you can't appeal to a higher authority on what was cool.)  and I shouted to one of them "Hey Brooke!" calling him by his real (actor) name. I couldn't think of his character name. Brooke McCarter played the big haired blonde vampire.

Billy Wirth, Brooke McCarter and Alex Winters (L to R)
played Dwayne, Paul and Marco.

There were three blondes, Brooke, Alex and Kieffer (Paul, Marco and David) so "The blonde vampire" doesn't do much to narrow it down. I didn't think he would but he responded to it. he was very friendly and grabbed my outstretched hand in the "arm wrestling handshake". He answered my "Hows it goin' " with something incredibly autonomous, if that makes sense. You see I was lucid, so I was cognizantly aware that everything said or seen ultimately came from me. Yet what he said surprised me. I wish I could remember what it was. I think he told me Jason Patrick's character, Michael had just made his first kill. Whatever it was they were all very happy about it. He behaved just like an actor at a horror convention, friendly and accommodating yet distant.

As they walked away to sit far off in the same restaurant, I said to my mom, "God, I love it here," referring to my lucid dreamscape. I can't tell you how thrilling it is to explore your own mind if you haven't done it before.

I looked over to their table and saw them watching me watching them. Mom sat down. I was torn, stay with Mom or go sit with them. I told myself "Go individualize." which I did.

Individualization is a process described by Jung of becoming your own person. It should also be noted that to my best knowledge, I have already individualized in the final dream where I confronted my Shadow and merged with him. I may expound on my Shadow in later posts. I don't know if it is possible to de-individualize or regress in that area but I think it is and I may need to do so again.

I walked over to their table and found Billy Wirth, The dark haired one (I knew neither his actor nor character name only his face) sitting with his feet outstretched to take up the seat opposite him. If the dream had any permanence, Brooke would have been on the opposite side next to Billy's feet, because I could see his face from where I started. I remember there was a girl or girls with them though not Jami Gertz (Star). Neither David, Laddie (the child) nor Marco were there. Jason Patrick had vanished also as there wasnt room for him in the booth I guess.

I tried to join them but Billy, the dark haired one, told me in no uncertain terms to fuck off. At some point he called me a pussy. I wasn't offended or surprised. He acted exactly as I expected him to. "Come on," I told him with incredulity of his assessment of my physicality. "I'm bigger and probably stronger than you," He immediately leapt to his feet and took off his leather jacket. I backpedaled remembering he is a vampire and has superhuman strength, and offering a hasty retraction. I didn't finish my sentence before he'd punched me twice in the left eye. Again I was surprised. It didn't hurt much, just jostled me a little. Thank God my dream self forgot about my eyebrow piercing or he would have floored me. Since my head didn't fly off my shoulders, I remembered I also have superhuman strength in lucid dreams and fought him until I had proven myself and he gave in. In the end he resorted to biting my wrist with his vampire teeth. I told him he couldn't break my skin and stop before he broke his teeth. I seems ironic but I was fighting him because I wanted to be his friend. After we broke it up, David (Kieffer) may have appeared and told me to meet them somewhere. My memory fails the longer since I woke up, and I've been trying to get this down all day, but that was I think the end of it.

The dream is full of symbols and truly lends itself to Jungian interpretation. Drop a line if you have any thoughts.

How to do a dream check

Ever wondered if you were dreaming? I can't take credit for the following, I read it on a dreaming website, perhaps, Dreammoods.com or The Lucidity Institute.
Means of knowing whether or not you are dreaming need to be safe, discrete and 100% accurate. Pinching, doing something dangerous or illegal don't fit these criteria. If more people knew this simple technique, there would be more lucid dreamers.
The dreaming consciousness and the physical body are inexorably connected in one fashion alone: The respiratory system. No matter what is going on in your dream, if your sleeping physical body can breathe, your dreaming body can breathe. If you fall in water and 'drown' you will find you can somehow still breathe.
This fact coupled with one other, makes a safe, discrete and 100% accurate dream check. The other fact is that your physical body is paralysed to prevent acting out your dreams.
The dream check is to simply pinch  your nose like you're about to dive into water and close your mouth. Now try to breathe through your nose. Try it right now. You can't because it is impossibe.
If you can, you may procede with absolute certainty that you are dreaming. Have fun.

Epic Dream

Friends,
It was perhaps a week ago, I posted my interest in Oneirology on Facebook. For the uninitiated, Oneirology (Oh-nigh-rol-ogy) is the study of dreams. A practitioner thereof is often refered to as an Oneirinaught. We'll just say lucid dreaming and lucid dreamer. Lucidity simply refers to the knowlegde that you are dreaming. What you decide to try to do with that knowledge delves into what is known as dream control.
Last week, I complained of "the worst lucid dream ever". I was in my living room, surrounded by extended family, including my mother. I remember doing a dream check and becoming lucid. I remember saying aloud "I dream! I'm dreaming!" but they didn't believe me. I tried every trick I know to try and convince them, but nothing worked. I had no extraordinary power at all. I couldn't fly, walk the walls, lift heavy objects, nothing. Finally, I was able to eacape the room by walking through the door to the kitchen. It was difficult, but I passed through and found myself in the kitchen of a house I lived in over five years ago.
Last night, I had the opposite, perhaps the best lucid dream ever. It still lacked all but the slightest modicum of control, but the best dreams, for me, are what I call semi-lucid. I was only aware that I was dreaming. I made no effort to control my environment or do anything extraordinary. I simply lived out the dream as a man wandering in wide eyed wonder of what his mind is capable. Once I start doing crazy things like flying, the dream tends to fade away. What stuck out the most in the dream was permanence. Things stayed where I left them. If I left a room and went back later, I would invariably find the same room. Now I have no way of proving this, even to myself, until it becomes possible to record and playback your dreams. I know how pliable the conscious mind is when the body is asleep, capable of believing anything it sees or any notion that may occur to it. Therefore, I may be mistaken in this permanence, but it certainly did appear so at the time.
The plot of the dream, such as it was, is lost on me now, but it took place mostly on an infinitely large train. It was a bullet train, travelling over 300 miles per hour. I remember I could feel the incredible wind when I would travel between cars.
What stuck out second, was the false awakening after the train docked in The City. The City is one of my reoccurring settings. Like the train, it is infinitely large. It is full of towering buildings, each of them a universe unto itself once inside. Believing myself awake again, I wandered the corridors of one of these buildings until I randomly did a dream check. "No..." I said. I tried again "No it can't be."
I was actually incredulous. The environment, so intricately rendered could not possibly be a dream. But it was.