Nerdly » ‘The Conjuring’ 4K UHD Review

01st Sep2025

‘The Conjuring’ 4K UHD Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor, Shanley Caswell, Hayley McFarland, Joey King, Mackenzie Foy, Kyla Deaver, Sterling Jerins | Written by Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes | Directed by James Wan

Can horror movies be scary anymore? This is an interesting question because, for the most part, horror fans don’t watch horror expecting to be scared because they’ve seen it all before. When a little bit of magic happens and that twinge of fear does spark, then that tends to make us enjoy the film even more. This is a rarity, especially in “Hollywood horror”, but The Conjuring actually manages to get a few good scares.

The Conjuring is based on the true story of the Perron family, who moved into an old Rhode Island farmhouse. Not long after moving in, strange things start to happen, which soon escalate to attacks on the family, leading to the mother reaching out to Ed and Lorraine Warren, two paranormal investigators who agree to investigate the problem. Discovering that the family is in grave danger from an ancient curse, they agree to help them escape it before it’s too late.

The reason The Conjuring is so effective is that it takes the horror back to old school, pulling back from the in-your-face style of horror and making it more personal and, in turn, more tense. The camera stays close to each character, never pulling away, so that we can see the whole scene, so what the characters see we do too, which means making it much more personal. The scares are scares that truly work, though there are many tropes in use. This isn’t always a bad thing, of course, and with haunted house movies these often do work as the setting is very much a trope itself.

When watching The Conjuring you’ll notice almost straight away that this is very much a film about The Warrens and who they are. Even going back to the film years later, knowing that we got a bunch of sequels, it still feels like this film was made with a view to creating a franchise, more than one movie about the pair, and to be fair, having seen all those sequels, that turned out not to be a bad thing! Whatever we may think of the real Warrens, they are still interesting characters and in the film and they do feel like they have many more stories to tell, even in this film they have ongoing stories that are effecting their performance, one including the Annabelle doll, in ways the doll seems misplaced in plot but the importance of it becomes apparent during the film.

The Conjuring is a film that is well thought out and has one aim in mind, and that is to scare you. There are many creepy moments and thankfully not too many jump scares, which seem to be the popular way to get scares in most horror. With The Conjuring it’s about what is hiding in the shadows and strange noises in another area of the house. When things escalate, things do tend to go for the more showboating style of horror, but even then, it’s done in a way that is effective and will have you remembering the film a long time after you’ve turned it off.

With scares that are actually effective and strong performances from the actors, The Conjuring is a must-see for fans of horror and for people who like to be scared. With an old-school style and a very creepy doll, it’s nice to see that Hollywood can actually bring out a true horror film now and again that can actually elicit a few frights.

Special Features:

Scariest of Them All – The cast and creators of The Conjuring take a look back at some of the greatest scares of the series, uncovering what made these films so iconic.
Reflections on the Conjuring – More than a decade after the release of the original film, the cast and crew of The Conjuring reflect on their experiences creating one of the most legendary horror series in history.
The Conjuring: Face-to-Face with Terror – Relive the real-life horror as the Perron family comes together to reflect back on the farmhouse they shared with diabolical spirits for nearly a decade.
A Life in Demonology – The real demonologist and paranormal experts from The Conjuring take you inside their life’s work and into their personal occult cellar, where they keep haunted and unholy relics from their many cases.
Scaring the “****” Out of You – Director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) welcomes you into his world and gives an inside look at the at the scenes that scare the “****” out of moviegoers time and time again.