In the decades since Linda Blair first hocked up a pea-soup facial, Hollywood xerographers have found in demonic possession a perennial cash absorber. Director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) stylishly resists the easy temptation of schlock-shocks and CGI as a means of supplanting storytelling. For its its first hour, this fact-based haunted-house chiller (Harrisville, not Amityville) effectively delivers the jolts. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson star as a team of husband-and-wife exorcists — he’s the official demonologist of the Catholic Church — brought in to repossess a remote farm that has placed its occupants — Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston, and their five daughters — under permanent house arrest. The trailer for The Conjuring is scarier than most horror features of recent vintage, and the feature makes good on the promise. Audience members at the screening I attended appeared to have been seated on pogo sticks. And clap hands for sound designer Joe Dzuban’s exquisite aurally-induced anxiety.

It scared the living crap out of me. Only at the movies is that a compliment. So kudos to The Conjuring for putting fresh fire into the overworked haunted-house genre.

The MPAA reportedly slapped a rare age-restrictive rating for "terror" on James Wan's movie—a decision that you can understand once you've seen the film.

James Wan's sixth feature is a sensationally entertaining old-school freakout and one of the smartest, most viscerally effective thrillers in recent memory.

It's the American box office success of the summer, but Robbie Collin is more tickled than terrified by horror film The Conjuring

A disquietingly sinuous haunted-house movie that has a healthy understanding of its own silliness

''To conjure'' originally meant to summon a devil, but then it became a word for magic tricks. In his latest horror confection, James Wan gives us both meanings.

Sadie knows. The dog always knows not to go into the haunted house. But since this was 1971, and the world, much less Rhode Island's Perron family, had not seen "The Exorcist" and the generations of ultra-realistic horror movies and "Ghost Hunters" TV shows that followed, they didn't see heed the dog's warnings. The Perrons…

Getting a blood transfusion of molten steel is possibly the only way you’ll stay in your seat all the way through this haunted house movie. No blood is spilled,

Haunted-house thriller delivers consistent chills and thrills.

James Wan continues to re-invigorate horror, one picture at a time

Director James Wan ("Saw," "Insidious") has crafted a wickedly effective horror crowd-pleaser -- taking well-worn elements of the genre (from a long list of classics including "The Exorcist," "Poltergeist" and "The Birds") and recombining them using solid actors, a minimum of splatter, and a carefully engineered sense of dread. It isn't particularly deep, but it's a grab-your-seatmate good time at the haunted house.

Watching "The Conjuring" is like getting a tour of a haunted house attraction from someone that pushes, and pulls you through every room. There's nothing really scary about Wan's latest because there's nothing particularly mysterious, or inviting about its proceedings. The film's relentlessly lame expository dialogue, and tedious parade of jump scares are overwhelming in the worst way possible.

In "The Conjuring," filmmaker James Wan opts for old-school restraint over gore in an effective throwback to ’70s supernatural horror-thrillers.

Classy old-school horror, James Wan’s “The Conjuring’’ depends more on its excellent cast and atmospheric direction than cheap gimmicks to raise hairs...

The Conjuring represents a member of an increasingly endangered species: the R-rated horror movie that relies more on suspense and scares than blood and gore. That's not to say there are no instances of horrific, stomach-churning visuals in The ...

Saw director James Wan delivers predictable but powerful shocks in this spooker about a pair of real-life paranormal investigators, writes Henry Barnes