SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.At the start of the film, Sandie barks outside of the house trying to warn the family. Carolyn (Lili Taylor) looks down at Sandie from the leftmost window of the house. It’s after this moment that everything starts to go wrong. Sadie dies and that’s just the beginning; it marks the start of the “infestation” stage of a haunting . Later on when Lorraine is helping do the laundry outside, one of the sheets flies up and covers the same window from above; this time the shot is handheld and no longer in control, just the like the situation. The sheet flies off and Batsheba walks off towards Carolyn. This marks the start of the “possession” stage of a haunting.

It’s a neat visual tie-in that shows that Wan can create longer visual patterns when he wants.

2.The nature of Cindy’s sleepwalking is used to great effect to help set up Batsheba’s and Rory’s backstory before get the official details of what’s going on. The first time Cindy walks into the cupboard, we’re introduced to its presence and we can guess that something supernatural is latching onto Cindy’s condition, drawing her towards the location. This is confirmed when Carolyn walks in while playing clap-hide-and-seek.

Unbeknownst to her, she’s actually playing with Rory. The reason she can’t find him is because he’s “hiding” in the crawlspace behind the cup-board which the same thing he did with Batsheba; this more innocuous game sets up Carolyn’s eventual fate as possessed. When the crawlspace is finally revealed, it makes the pieces that came before fit into place. The whole set-up is coherent and executed honestly.

3.I wish that the tensions in the family dynamics were pushed more to make the catharsis of the ending hit harder. We get glimpses of some issues with the Warren’s daughter, but barely scratch the surface of where we could go. The idea of a child dealing with demonologist parents is an interesting angle that could lend to unique drama. This might have contrasted neatly off of some parallel struggle the Perron girls might have had.

The lack of any real exploration of struggle within either family makes the ending more hollow. Carolyn’s decision to save her family is reasonable given the context and slight set-up by which her realization comes about, but it would have felt more resounding if there was some tension in the family that could serve as a subtext to the spectacle.

4. One of my favorite moments in the film happens when Christine (Joey King) sees something by the door. The scene is in near complete darkness, so we try and strain our eyes to see what she sees but can’t make anything out. Her terror however makes us frantically scan the frame. When Christine tells Nancy (Hayley McFarland) that there’s something behind her, it’s surprisingly horrific.