Under the category of better late than never, I finally saw The Conjuring. (I often wait to see horror movies at home, in the dark, by myself, because, after all, isn’t that the creepiest way to watch them, instead of having to listen to the giggles of all the moviegoers around you in a cinema?)

It’s one of the better made films of its type in recent years, a step above director James Wan’s Dead Silence and Insidious (both 2 ¼ stars on my list). This one gets 3 – above average. However, doesn’t it feel just a bit like every other horror film you’ve ever seen? And did Wan really try to combine a possessed-doll film with a haunted-house flick with an exorcism movie? Wow. And don’t even get me started on the relgious message and the insinuation that the Salem witches really WERE Satan-worshipping witches. That is, for a lack of a better phrase, messed up.

Yet the film holds enough scares, clever camera angles and tried-and-true tricks of the genre to make it a decent watch for all audiences, except kids, of course, who should still be enjoying Monsters University – but NOT Disney’s Planes.