Set in the 1970s, this supposedly true story takes place in
Rhode Island, where Roger and Carolyn Perron (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) have just moved their family into a new home. The building,
an old farmhouse, needs a bit of work doing to bring it up to scratch, but they aren't too worried about that.
But, no sooner do they move in, they discover that there's something creepy going on. The dog refuses to come inside the house. The sound of children giggling can be heard in certain rooms, despite the fact their children aren't in them. All the clocks keep stopping around 3am, someone keeps knocking all the family portraits off the wall and it seems there's something nasty down in the cellar...
With the strange goings on in the house getting progressively worse, including the daughters thinking they saw a demon, they ask for the assistance of a couple of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). They discover the farmhouse has a very bad history of murders and suicides, which they believe has something to do with the land once belonging to an accused witch from the 1800s, who supposedly cursed the land the farm was subsequently built on.
It seems the only way to get rid of the evil spirits from the house is to perform an Exorcism. But, that's not going to be an easy task as they need the permission of the church to do so. But with things getting out of hand back at the Perron homestead, can they afford to wait?
A fairly entertaining ghostly chiller. Though, like many other films of this era, relies heavily on sudden loud sound effects and musical cues to make you jump. Whilst I enjoyed the film, it's also true to say there's nothing in here that hasn't been done many times before. Indeed, the film borrows very heavily from "The Amityville Horror" and there's even a line about the Warren's going to take a look at another haunting in Long Island, which is a clear reference to that film. There's also bits borrowed from "The Exorcist", so you get the idea of what to expect.
Definitely worth a watch, it's also kind of fun seeing Vera Farmiga, who went on to play Norma in the "Bates Motel" TV series in this, but again, don't expect anything new.
