Creepshow

There are a few people who will dispute me on this, but 2010's Insidious is one of the most frightening, best-made modern mainstream horror films of the 21'st century. Within a sea of found-footage Paranormal Activity clones, the brainchild of Saw (just the first one) director James Wan was surprisingly moody, atmospheric, and well-acted for a budget film, delivering some of the best scares in recent memory. Add in being a money-making machine, and you've got all the ingredients for a sequel, which is due out later this year. But in the meantime, Wan put together this new horror which apparently has been trying to get the big-screen treatment for more than twenty years.

The Conjuring is based on the true story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, who for decades investigated paranormal instances around the United States. Ed was a demonologist and the only non-Catholic priest allowed to perform exorcisms (at least according to the movie), while Lorraine was (and still is today) a clairvoyant and medium who could communicate with dead spirits. The pair are perhaps best known for their study of the infamous Amityville Haunting, but they also claim to have taken part in over 10,000 investigations during their career. This film is based on one of those cases, as Carolyn and Roger Perron (Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston) and their five daughters find themselves haunted by a particularly vengeful spirit in their new home. With their lives a living hell and no place else to go, the family calls on the Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) to find out just what's happening and to stop it. What they find however might just be the most terrifying event the pair have ever discovered.

If the recording equipment wasn't clue enough, that sweater just SCREAMS the 70's

From moment one, when we see an earlier investigation into the case of two nurses haunted by a possessed doll, Wan's skills as a modern master of terror are established. This is a man who not only uses darkness to his advantage (because any decent horror director can do that), but can make something scary when fully illuminated through timing and not showing too much. A pair of undead legs peeking out from under a table or some kind of creature peering out from atop a tall dresser are absolutely terrifying under the right circumstances, and Wan is an expert at keeping that level of atmosphere prevalent throughout the entire film. As a result, you can be assured that The Conjuring is meant for horror aficionados and anybody who can use a good scare. If you balk at the tiniest of frightening moments however, this title (or in fact any scary movie) is not for you.

Yeah, we might just have a haunting here.

For those whose lives cannot consist of chills alone, The Conjuring also possesses a stellar cast led by Wilson and Farmiga. Wilson is of course a Wan veteran, also having starred in Insidious. While his performance here is certainly more low-key than it was in that scare-fest, he's an effective lead and moves the story forward more than most of his co-stars. While Wilson plays the Warrens' logic, Farmiga is the soul, effortlessly playing the mystical half of the investigative pair. Hers is an esoteric performance, full of life and emotion that leaves the rest of the actors in the dust. In doing so, she also happens to put in one of her best performances in years, even better than her Oscar-nominated work in Up in the Air. From the supporting players, the best is definitely Lili Taylor, who steals the screen with her classic wife/haunting victim on more than one occasion. Ron Livingston puts in more of an everyman performance, but that's all the script calls for from him, and he does so well enough. Their five daughters contrast between well-known genre actresses (White House Down's Joey King and Twilight's Mackenzie Foy) and ones not quite as recognizable (Detention's Shanley Caswell, Lie to Me's Hayley McFarland, and newcomer Kyla Deaver), but all are effective when called upon to perform, although with such a big cast it's not as often as I would have liked. Still, it's a more-than-effective cast that Wan has brought forth, and they really sell the horror of what is happening on screen.

Yup, I think there might be spirits here.

Unfortunately, what you see in the theater is pretty much what you've witnessed in any classic Exorcist-type film in the past twenty years. Wan might make it terrifying, but that doesn't change the fact that every single horror trope we've come to expect from the genre is back, even if it is with a vengeance. Obviously, for a story from over forty years ago, you can expect that details would leak into other, newer horror films of franchises. But while Wan's Insidious was instrumental in reinventing the budget horror classic, here he's just doing what everybody before him put on, and the result is definitely less than you might expect. It's actually kind of surprising that Wan and his crew didn't take discretionary control of the story, as "Based on a True Story" has never limited any director's ability to put interesting content first.

And she would have gotten away with it too, if not for those meddling kids.

Still, despite The Conjuring's less-than-original premise, you can't help but be scared out of your pants by Wan's effortless atmosphere and the horror that you are made to see through his lens. That and great performances can achieve quite a bit, and while there's no reinventing sliced bread here, it's still a VERY scary product that can be enjoyed by just about anyone looking for a cheap scare. Is The Conjuring the scariest movie out there? No. But it IS the scariest movie so far in 2013, and right now that definitely counts for something.

A Disney Oddity

When I first saw promotional material for The Odd Life of Timothy Green, I was still dating former "loyal sidekick" Anne. That was over a year ago - well before Todd and I met - and illustrates just how long parent company Disney has been pushing this feel-good family release. It seems like an odd decision to do so; in the time since, similar film We Bought a Zoo released its trailers, got into theaters in December, banked its profits and released on DVD. For such a title as Odd Life to promote itself a year in advance seems like either shoddy marketing or a failure in the making. In fact, after seeing that trailer for the first time, I didn't see a single follow-up until just this past spring, causing me to believe that the movie had been delayed due to negative feedback. But no, August 15'th was always meant to be the film's release date, and The Odd Life of Timothy Green, with midcard performers Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton at the forefront, finally hit theaters a couple of weeks ago. Worth the extensive wait? I suppose it depends how much saccharine you like in your coffee.

Parents without a clue.

When married couple Cindy (Garner) and Jim (Edgerton) Green discover that they cannot conceive a child, they are understandably crushed. Cindy desires that same proud feeling her sister expresses about her "gifted" children, while Jim desperately wants to be the attentive, loving father he never had. Spending every dime they had on medical treatments and examinations, they are at the end of their rope. Finally, in an attempt to move on, they take down all the ideas of what their perfect child would be, lock those written notes in a box, and bury it in the garden. That night, they are shocked to discover a young boy (CJ Adams) appear in their home, a boy who apparently dug himself out of the garden. Calling himself Timothy, the naive and earnest boy sets about changing the lives of the Greens and their friends and family, in many unexpected ways. But what nobody but Timothy knows is that he only has a limited amount of time on this Earth...

The "Family Talent Show" did not go as well as planned...

I admit that there were some notions of the trailers that had sparked my interest, from the magical appearance of Timothy to the leaves that are seen on his legs from the get-go. But beyond that, the idea that this movie could be anything beyond its "miraculous" lead character didn't seem possible, and director Peter Hedges doesn't do anything to prove me wrong. It's all Timothy, all the time, and between his parents' shock at everything he does and says to people alternating between thinking he's weird and genuinely liking him, his presence gets very tired VERY fast. It doesn't help that CJ Adams is just one in a long line of annoying kid actors whose earnestness and energy become a major liability the more the audience is exposed to them. And despite the fact that both Garner and Edgerton are quality talents, neither is at the top of their respective games. We've seen the pensive mother-type from Garner before, but she was so much better in Juno. And for Edgerton, going from dark, gritty roles in Animal Kingdom, The Thing and Warrior to a more family-friendly movie doesn't feel as genuine as he and I had hoped.

How does this end? He leaves her.

 This means that The Odd Life of Timothy Green must live or die by the strength of its supporting characters, a varied bunch limited by the cliched similarities inherent in small-town American towns. Rosemarie Dewitt (who has appeared in a lot this year), Dianne Wiest, M. Emmet Walsh, David Morse, Ron Livingston and Common play normal people in normal ways and don't really do anything special outside of being very talented, which is fine but not great. There are a few standouts, however. Playing Timothy's best friend, Odeya Rush makes a wonderful splash as the reserved, artistic Joni. And Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo carries the small role of a representative for an adoption firm that the Greens are in contact with. Both actresses put on great performances, but are sadly underused and could have done much more to liven up the story.

The whole thing is about as exciting as this screenshot

Because despite the talent of the people onscreen, it is the story that sinks Timothy Green. The plot feels incredibly thin, as Timothy's journey to impact lives over and over again and help Cindy and Jim overcome their parenting hiccups stops being charming after the first hour. What follows is boredom: lots and LOTS of boredom as you wait for something (Anything!) fun to happen. There's no way small children will be able to maintain their attention throughout this movie, which is weird since this IS supposed to be a family film. While it does keep the sugar factor going strong and wrap up things in a happy fashion, it doesn't make the boring interludes forgivable, nor does it manage to carry the script beyond the interesting idea that it once was.

"Hello, I must be going."

It's that lack of follow through that makes The Odd Life of Timothy Green one of this year's lesser films. It's not horrible, but much more needed to be done to make this a film a classic children's film, and it ends up in the lower half of 2012's mid-range pack. This is Disney playing it safe, while ParaNorman does a much better job entertaining kids in its own charmingly subversive way. Wholly uninteresting and not worth the ticket price, you can save Timothy Green for a final-option DVD rental.