Late Summer Double-Feature: "The Conjuring" & "Elysium"

The Conjuring

Insidious director James Wan brings us the next great horror classic in The Conjuring, a story inspired by one of the most notorious cases of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, portrayed exceptionally by Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) and Vera Farmiga (TV's Bates Motel). From the trailers, it seemed that The Conjuring was shaping up to be another clichéd haunted house thriller. But Wan subverts such contrivances with his old-school approach to the scares. A potent sense of dread permeates each and every frame, rendering futile the expectation of the scares and allowing the audience to cling tighter to their armrests in anticipation of a frightening payoff. Essentially, this makes The Conjuring one of the most terrifying movies in years. Horror fans will love the tongue-in-cheek references to classic films like The Shining, Child's Play, Poltergeist, The Birds and The Exorcist. The acting performances (barring a weak turn by Office Space's Ron Livingston) and engrossing true story also make The Conjuring one of the most emotionally affecting horror films you're likely to see. I found myself misty-eyed by the end. I have my fingers crossed hoping the Blu-Ray hits stores by Halloween!


9/10

Elysium

From District 9 director Neill Blomkamp comes another original vision of the future in Elysium, a story set in the year 2154 in which the one-percenters reside on a luxurious, man-made space station called (you guessed it) "Elysium" while the rest of us are left to toil away on a diseased, decaying Earth. Enter our hero, Max (Matt Damon), an ordinary guy with a desperate need to get to Elysium. In order to punch his ticket, Max takes on a daring mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.
The action is non-stop and consistently intense. The visual effects are impeccably life-like. The acting performances are middling overall due to underdeveloped characters, but Elysium is still one of the summer's best films. Sharlto Copley gives the film's best performance as the brooding, visceral special agent Kruger, who's assigned the task of tracking Max down at all costs before he can do any damage to Elysium. The one doing the assigning is Elysium's Secretary Delacourt, played by a mediocre Jodie Foster who makes matters worse by putting on a gaudy accent. Damon essentially dials this one in, though he's still fun to watch and easy to root for as our reluctant hero, Max.
Like District 9, Elysium serves as a stark political allegory; but instead of apartheid, issues surrounding health care and immigration take center stage. If nothing else, Elysium is a startling portrait of what our world could be like if our current policies go a century unchecked.

Elysium's greatest flaw is its lack of detail. Max and his childhood friend Frey (Alice Braga) are the only characters allowed real background development, though Max is said to have had an adolescence fraught with criminal activity, which we oddly see none of. Most of the other characters and events are not given clear context. If Blomkamp had resolved these issues in his screenplay, he'd have surely annihilated the "sophomore slump" with a near-perfect sci-fi thriller. Still, the end product is an engaging piece of summer escapism that's better than the vast majority of what's been shoveled into theaters this season, flawed though it may be.

8/10