Conjurer (2008)

One of my all time favorites.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

"Conjurer" is another incredibly dumb and insignificant horror flick of which the makers didn't know exactly what they wanted to achieve. That may sound quite harsh, but it's the truth. We all know know about movies dealing with witchcraft/ghost story elements, like ancient curses and possessed building, right? You probably also know about them pseudo-intelligent thrillers where they make us wonder whether all kinds of strange occurrences are happening for real or just inside the protagonist's mentally unstable mind, right? Well, with "Conjurer", writer/director Clint Hutchinson ambitiously attempts to combine the two together, but let me assure you that they don't mix! Quite the contrary, the end result is a senseless and completely irrational film that – on top of all this - also is boring, bloodless and bad! One year after the tragic and traumatizing loss of their unborn child, artsy photographer Shawn and his wife Helen move to a big old-fashioned countryside mansion. Shawn is reluctant to move, because he's a real city boy and he particularly doesn't like being financially dependent of his intrusive brother-in-law. There's a ramshackle cabin on their property, and according to the superstitious neighbors – naturally – it's possessed by the spirit of a witch named Hattie, and she wreaks havoc on everyone who even thinks of destroying the cabin. Shawn regularly spots Hattie and a whole lot of other strange things (like a very hostile crow) on the premises, but his family thinks he just looks for an excuse to leave again. Whilst writing down this little plot synopsis, I realized that I wrote nearly the exact same lines numerous of times before for other lousy horror flicks. In other words, "Conjurer" is clichéd and derivative and doesn't feature anything to distinguish itself from the rest. Relatively many of my fellow reviewers stated that the film is full of genuine scares and atmospheric tension, but I honestly think they are either related to one of the cast or crew members or they never watched a REAL horror movie before in their lives. "Conjurer" is scare-free and slow-paced and overall second-rate

2 stars for the landscape.This movie is really really really bad. I wonder who wrote the positive reviews? Were they relatives and friends of the cast? Or people that have never watched a thriller or a horror movie before? I thought only insomniac can give a good grade to this movie.Acting is h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e. Especially from the male hero who has this weird permanent expression in his face, I can't understand if he smiles all the time or not. This is film is dull. Boring. The only horror is watching it. Actually as I am writing these words it is still playing on TV behind me and I simply don't care if there is a ghost, a spirit, a daemon or a smurf in that haunted cabin. And to be honest I wouldn't bother to write anything about it but those positive reviews were a challenge I couldn't just ignore :)

I will be brief in this one. This is a classic supernatural, ghost-spirit-spell story movie. And that's all. You won't see anything new, the typical twist at the end is not the sixth sense but it's just normal. Good points: It's about more the story than to give you frightening moments. There's no blood, no gore, any unnecessary. Actually it doesn't abuse of cheap-fake frights at all (you know music in-crescendo, funny tricks with camera but finally nothing happens etc) It keeps simple. The plot is not bad but as in most of this genre movies could have been better or treat it more in depth.I wouldn't go to theatres to watch this movie but I didn't mind to rent it. If you have the day of watching an OK movie go for it!!

My husband and I went with a whole group of friends to the Premiere last November (2007) and EVERYBODY thoroughly enjoyed "Conjurer"! I thought the gradual build up of tension was very well done with an underlying feeling of unease and then the completely unexpected jolts of pure fear -- Made all of us jump! You could hear the gasps from the audience!-- were superbly incorporated. A very smooth flowing script from scene to scene -- there was no way to tell that this was in any way a low budget movie as it came across as first rate.Very good acting by the whole cast and kudos to the whole production and directing crew plus make-up and all the other folks involved for putting together a believable and natural movie set.I really enjoyed the fact that instead of blood and gore (which to me is just "yucky" and not scary at all) the movie scares one psychologically. Congratulations on a great job!!