Why so much hype?

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Wow... there are a LOT of really polarized reviews here for this film. But, I can understand why. This is the classic case of a VERY slow burn, ULTRA low-key, Retro Horror film, very much like a lot of the old British Ghost Stories. You honestly either really like them or you do NOT.That is why you see reviews here with 7 and 8 stars and comments like 'Creepy' or 'Really Scary', and yet there are also MANY that tell you that the movie is complete crap and a waste of time.The one thing right from the start that I VERY much appreciated was that the acting was actually quite good. Even others here who have rated the film a '5' have stated as much. As I've said before in other reviews, usually that is the ONE thing that turns me off immediately with many 'Horror' films that are similar to this. Especially with very emotional situations such as this couple went through. But, thankfully, the characters never became excruciatingly hysterical or unbelievable like so many do in films like this. So, that went a long way, at least for me, in helping me like the movie.Basically it should be pretty easy for you to decide whether you would like this movie or not. IF you do enjoy real slow, but quality old fashioned Horror films and you are NOT looking for over the top sadism or violence, and also VERY important, if you are the kind of person who can EASILY get drawn into atmospheric, slow-building, Ghost Stories that are similar to this, then there is a decent chance that you will enjoy watching this movie. BUT... and it is a HUGE BUT like Mariah Carey's... if you like your Horror films with a faster pace or more action or are easily bored, then you will definitely want to give this one a pass. I'm not saying that you won't be able to appreciate it; I'm only saying that it probably is just not your kind of Horror movie.But, if you DO enjoy a low-key, mildly scary Horror story and you can allow yourself to get caught up in the mood and atmosphere that the film makers built quite nicely, then you should have some fun watching this...

"Conjurer" is an utterly poor and hardly worthwhile affair.**SPOILERS**A year after a miscarriage, Shawn, (Andrew Bowen) and Helen Burnett, (Maxine Bahns) move out to the countryside with Frank Higgins, (John Schneider) and Marlin Dryer, (Tom Nowicki) who tells them he's going to let them live in a small house while he finishes their new home. Attempting to get settled, he begins to think he's the target of something as whenever he goes near a dilapidated shack on the grounds something terrible happens. Eventually learning of an old story about the first owner who had cursed the cabin against those who would move in, he realizes the connection between the story and the events that have transpired to him and he tries to convince others of the dangers on the house before the deadly curse that's still alive takes them all out.The Good News: There wasn't much to this one that worked. One of the main issues is that there's some rather good haunting scenes, even though most of them are incredibly short. The main early scenes out in the cabin, first when he discovers the broken fragments on the floor that results in the thumb accident that plays a big role in the rest of the film and the second one where the hallucinatory snakes and maggots are shown to be involved despite not appearing later, are fine at building up a small level of mystery about the location, and a later scene where smashed and scattered fragments of something would've been a blast had it actually done something with them but it's still a pretty creepy scene. The witch burning vision during the thunderstorm comes the closest to working well due to the freaky vision and the set-up with the storm, but again is never capitalized upon. Even other potentially fun scenes, like the faulty projector or the flashing lights in the house in the distance, could've been good and at best, tend to make for a nice atmosphere. There's also a fairly lengthy scene following a foot-chase through the woods against an unknown victim is fairly good, and the finale is probably the best part of the film. With the haunting in the cabin turning into an armed chase through the darkened house with plenty of surprises to pop out of nowhere, it's fairly entertaining and certainly makes for some adrenaline to flow through the film, and with a somewhat original twist to occur certainly helps. The only other part that actually works is the back-story, which like most good ghost stories is rooted in legend and is somewhat chilling, providing the perfect basis on which to hang a horror film. These here are all that really work for this one.The Bad News: There was some pretty big problems for this one. One of the biggest issues, as it's the one that takes up the most amount of time, is the film's rather horror-less feel to it. It's very rarely when the film feels like a horror film, which is most of the good parts, which leaves the rest of the time spent on a lot of themes or ideas that aren't very scary or horrifying. Frankly, the idea of watching them argue over what to paint a specific room in the house or how the rest of the family is reacting to his stories aren't that interesting, and when the idea of him slowly going certifiably-insane becomes a focal point halfway through with his repeatedly unsubstantiated claims of funny business occurring in the cabin, not only does it not be scary but it really becomes irritating and annoying when it keeps playing the same card over and over again. This leads the film into an incredibly dull-like feeling and makes for some really boring times within the film, especially during the ending when it somewhat peters out instead of building up to a grand finale. That's another problem with the film, which is it's weak and entirely confusing finale. This one doesn't even let you know it's over until the credits begin rolling, which is bad enough, but the visuals and the story told are just utterly confusing and don't mesh at all. This one ends up feeling really lame when it's all over and doesn't leave much of a positive effect when it's over. Another big problem is the film's censored feel, which never sits well in a film. The first half of the film presents the wife as constantly horny and wanting some action, yet it never shows it and cuts away just before, and it has no problem later on showing her changing while wearing nothing but a bra, which is a total tease. There's also the lack of violence here, which really doesn't deserve it and would've added something fun to the film. The last flaw is the film's incredibly short action scenes. No matter how fun they are, the fact that the longest one lasts all of a minute, and that's pushing it to the extreme, simply shows that this one is not at all concerned with keeping the film moving along, which is a big problem as some of them had the potential to really stand-out, yet they're not given the time to do so. These here are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: Even though it may seem there's some good stuff here, most of it's hardly worth the effort and is overtaken by the flaws. Really only see this one if you're into the style of this one or a fan of the creative side, otherwise this one will have the flaws more apparent than those who won't matter.Rated PG-13:Language and Violence

Professional photographic artist Shawn and his wife Helen relocate to a farmhouse in the country outside New York City after a failed pregnancy. A cabin a few feet away very well could be haunted by the spirit of a witch who curses those attempting to get pregnant out of revenge for her own child's murder at the hands of her husband. Shawn is tormented by her presence and a black crow which is always around to bother him. Shawn's thumb was stuck by a tooth in the cabin, an infection has set in, and is getting worse. Soon he begins investigating the history of the cabin and the witch. Is he actually experiencing these events or are they a figment of his imagination? The film establishes the possibility that he's a victim of inherited paranoid schizophrenia..his father murdered his mother then committed suicide, so the possibility is there that he himself suffers such a mental illness. This could pose a threat to his wife, who has become pregnant again.I thought the work of Andrew Bowen and Maxene Bahns as the Burnetts was quite solid, with developed characters you care about, and I appreciated the attempt to slowly build a spooky atmospheric story about the possible witch's ghost who lives in a creepy cabin, but for some reason, the film never quite satisfied me. Maybe it was because it was so obvious. It was rather predictable as well, even the twist at the end, it's so calculated in such a way, that you see the results before they happen. Or, at least I did, and I'm as dense as they come. The psychological angle is blatantly established to set up the lingering possibility of his suffering a mental disorder, but you always wonder if what he is experiencing is true. John Schneider has a supporting role as Helen's big brother, Frank Higgins, a construction supervisor always at odds with Shawn over the idea of leaving the country home out of worry that the witch will take their baby. Frank plans on using land given to Helen to build houses on, providing them with the temporary residence until he finished their new home. What started out as a refreshing change for the couple slowly deteriorates as Shawn becomes overwhelmed with the legend surrounding the cabin..that, and his neighbor, Fulton Moss(Brett Rice)fuels his paranoia with information regarding the witch and how she has effected his pregnant cow. I think those accustomed with films such as this already know that it will not end well for Shawn either way..if he's imagining everything, he's a nutcase, but if he's right, his wife's in danger. The result won't surprise those who have seen their share of these kinds of movies. The film is seen through the point-of-view of Shawn, so we are part of his torment, and growing paranoia. We see the occurrences in the cabin, and the witch that pops up from time to time, so the viewer is experiencing what he does. We can sympathize because everyone considers him a nuisance with suspicious behavioral problems. But, the film choreographs it in such a way that as the story plays out, you aren't shocked or surprised..and that's the rub, they obviously want to shock you with how the story unfolds, yet the result doesn't. A nice try, nonetheless..call it average of it's type, one that won't remain with you very long after watching it.

I read this was screening at this year's Slamdance festival in the Twilight Section. Slamdance only chooses films with under a million dollar budget from first time filmmakers so it caught my eye. Then I checked out the film's website and saw it had won four other film festival awards and had good reviews so I rented it to see what this little half million dollar film had going for it. I like watching indie films and this looked at least interesting.First, for such a low budget it's far better than a lot of studio movies with 20, 30 or 40 times the budget. Second, it's also almost old-fashioned in the slow pace and lack of gore for a horror flick so I can see why viewers that like jump-cut gore are going to find it too tame. But like other reviewers have said, when it seems that all we ever get lately is films going the slasher and blood route and the herky-jerky Asian horror plus ridiculous CGI FX that have become almost laughable, this director bucked the trend and went more cerebral and eerie. This had to be a conscious decision on the part of the producers since it's clear they had solid creative elements involved in the photography, FX and make-up departments that were used sparingly. I'm pretty sure that certain elements of the story could have have been stronger and shot better if they had more time and money and locations, but it was overall quite effective. It never felt low budget especially only a half million dollars. Oh and I should mention that John Schneider was also actually very good in this, small part but used well. Conjurer gets an 8 for doing a lot for a little.