Alec Roach
Film Trailer Analysis
Knepper
HR: Youtube, EasyBIB
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Gothic Conventions in “The Conjuring”
“The Conjuring” is a movie made in 2013 showing the real life events of a family in the 1960s and their horrific experiences in it. The movie is told in a lecture room with video, then delving into the actual film of the experience. It is a typical haunted house experience, giving us all of the creepy and abnormal details as would any other movie like this.
The movie first starts off with the family moving in, but the family dog refusing to enter the house. There is a theory that animals are able to sense the presence of ghosts or any other supernatural entities within a structure. This causes the family confusion, but only in a comical sense, not realizing the sinister meaning behind the dog’s actions. Later in the movie, the dog is found with its neck snapped, a horrific image to anyone. The family blames it on the dog’s leash, but we know that it is the ghost. Dramatic irony is widely used throughout any horror film, and this is one instance of it being used in this movie.
The house is old, dilapidated, and almost unfit to live in. The family buys this house in the hopes of renovating it, and making it a nice home to raise their children in. At the first sight of the house, we can tell that something is amiss within its walls. The windows are dirty, the paint is peeling, the electricity doesn’t work at first, and there is a dead tree in the back yard. All of these signs we have seen in other stories we have read this semester. “The Fall of the House of Usher” had almost all of these qualities when Poe described it.
As the movie progresses, we come to find out that a mother killed her only child and hung herself from the dead tree in the backyard. The mother begins to experience weird hallucinations of these events, and in the end of the movie is possessed by the same vengeful spirit of the dead mother. The paranormal investigators are forced to perform an exorcism, another mechanism seen in all horror movies. Religion has always been viewed as something one could use to combat evil spirits, especially those that possess hosts. A crucifix is used to kill vampires, as well as holy water in most vampire related horror movies. In this film, the husband of the paranormal investigators uses a bible and a crucifix to expel the ghost from the mother. However, it is not religion alone that saved this mom. The exorcism appears to work in the film, and the mother seems to have returned to her normal self, only to still have the ghost inside her. She attacks her saviors, and it isn’t until she personally fights the ghost that she is released from its grip.
“The Conjuring” is yet another tale of personal strength and religion told through a gothic lense. The gothic conventions are throughout this movie, you only have to know what to look for.
Works Cited
“The Conjuring – Official Main Trailer [HD].” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 12 Apr