`The Conjuring’ `Saw’ Director James Wan Possesses the Critics; New King of Horror Does It Without a Drop of Blood

“The Conjuring” and “Saw” director, James Wan is the new king of fear. Critics are calling “The Conjuring” the best horror film of 2013. “The Conjuring” director James Wan also picked up another title, he’s not just the director of “Saw” anymore.

“The Conjuring” director James Wan created a creepy classic that keeps the most hardened and cynical of critics on the edge of their seats. James Wan didn’t cast any vampires in “The Conjuring.” You won’t see witches, zombies or monsters. You won’t actually see anything scary. The biggest horror payoff scene in the movie doesn’t even have blood.

"The Conjuring," stars Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston. Director James Wan creates an wholly bone-chilling atmosphere that harkens back to the classic movies of the seventies. He does this because the people who really did this stuff did it in the seventies and they scared us before with their tales that became “The Amityville Horror” and other modern horror classics.

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are checking out a haunted house in Rhode Island in 1971. Roger (Ron Livingston) and Carolyn Perron (Lily Taylor) just bought the house and live their with their four young daughters. Nancy (Hayley MacFarland) and Christine (Joey King) are asleep in the same bedroom when something grabs Christine's legs. She sees something her sister doesn’t and what she sees scares the living shit out of her. "Do you see it? It's looking right at us."

The audience never sees it either. But that doesn’t mean it’s not scary. It sounds scary, whatever it is. It leaves it up to the imagination and boy, are critics letting their imaginations run away with them. They are comparing “The Conjuring” with classic masterpieces like The Haunting from 1963 and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." Wan returned to classic horror moviemaking and in staying away from the gore they’ve won over esteemed film critics like Manhola Dargis and Andrew O'Hehir and got James Wan the crown of reigning champion of horror.

 by Tony Sokol