I've been a little better getting reviews out this month. With this review, I will get five done in fifteen days. I'm happy with that, though I was hoping to do better. I will hopefully see ten or more reviews this month. I was going to watch this movie sooner than I did, but I ended up going to the theater to watch Escape Room and I wanted to do a review for it. So, a day late, I did get around to watching Conjurer (2008), a movie that Netflix sent to me on DVD. This is the quickest I have sent a movie back in a couple of months at least. Something must be wrong with me.
Shawn (Andrew Bowen) and his wife Helen (Maxine Bahns) move out into the country after the unexpected death of their first child. Something went wrong during the pregnancy sadly. With the help of Helen's brother Frank (John Schneider), they are able to find out a house that is being sold on the cheap side. They discover a cabin on the backside of their property, which the locals say a witch once lived there. Shawn begins to believe that the witch is still around when he sees a fire from in the cabin and a crow always seems to be around. When he finds out that Helen is pregnant again, he begins to fear that the witch is after the baby.
Conjurer was co-written by David Yarbrough and Clint Hutchison, who also directed. Even though Conjurer is getting just under middle ground average ratings, most of the reviews I found for it didn't think very highly of it. I didn't find it so bad though. There are certainly some moments that could have been way better than they were, but for the most part, I actually enjoyed this one. The story is what grabbed me and kept me interested in the movie. It was obvious from the start that there might be a witch because their dog was acting a little weird with the cabin. At first, I thought this might be something like a possession film, where the witch would take over Helen somehow. Then the story makes us think that the witch is actually after a baby, as there is a story told that supports that. At some point though, I started to realize that this story isn't about what the witch wants. It was more about if there is a witch at all or if it is just something going on with Shawn. It wasn't an obvious thing, which I was thankful for, but it wasn't a big secret either. They did do a nice job of keeping me guessing as to which way it was going to end and I have to give a movie credit when it does that. I'm not sure that the ending explains everything that happened in the film though. Once it is revealed if there is a witch or not, the film takes us back through events but not all of them. Because of that, I wasn't sure if some things could be explained by the ending or not. The very last scene is really creepy though. There are some things I didn't like that managed to bring the film down some. This mostly comes from one scene where Shawn sets a trap for the crow and it works. He takes a knife and is going to kill the crow, but this turns out to be harder than he thought for some reason. The crow manages to fight back despite having one leg caught in a trap. It was a weird scene that turns out to look rather silly.
There isn't much for special effects. The witch looks kind of dead at times, which was some pretty good makeup for that. I'm not sure who played the witch, but she was pretty without the makeup to make her look dead. Shawn gets a bite on his thumb that starts to look pretty nasty once it gets infected but that is it as far as the effects go. The acting wasn't too bad. I rather enjoyed Maxine Bahns in her role but I felt that Andrew Bowen could feel flat at times. Overall I thought his acting was fine though. It was a surprise to see John Schneider in a horror film. Yes, I know which TV show he used to be on and I recognized him right away. He is around on and off but doesn't have much to do with any of the scary stuff that happens. Even so, he does a good job here.
While I enjoyed watching Conjurer, it didn't thrill me. I can always get behind a movie that leaves me guessing as to what is going on, which is why I won't give it a below average rating, but I did think the story could have been better. Everyone plays an important part in the story, but it is mostly just about Shawn. There is a point where it would seem that the witch is after Helen, but it would have been nice if she had seen some stuff happening as well. I get why the writers didn't allow that at least. Anyway, if Conjurer sounds like something you would like to watch, give it a try. While reviews aren't always nice to it, it does hit close to an average score so there are others that felt like I did in that this wasn't that bad of a film.
3 out of 5 I want a creepy looking cabin in my backyard
Shawn (Andrew Bowen) and his wife Helen (Maxine Bahns) move out into the country after the unexpected death of their first child. Something went wrong during the pregnancy sadly. With the help of Helen's brother Frank (John Schneider), they are able to find out a house that is being sold on the cheap side. They discover a cabin on the backside of their property, which the locals say a witch once lived there. Shawn begins to believe that the witch is still around when he sees a fire from in the cabin and a crow always seems to be around. When he finds out that Helen is pregnant again, he begins to fear that the witch is after the baby.
Conjurer was co-written by David Yarbrough and Clint Hutchison, who also directed. Even though Conjurer is getting just under middle ground average ratings, most of the reviews I found for it didn't think very highly of it. I didn't find it so bad though. There are certainly some moments that could have been way better than they were, but for the most part, I actually enjoyed this one. The story is what grabbed me and kept me interested in the movie. It was obvious from the start that there might be a witch because their dog was acting a little weird with the cabin. At first, I thought this might be something like a possession film, where the witch would take over Helen somehow. Then the story makes us think that the witch is actually after a baby, as there is a story told that supports that. At some point though, I started to realize that this story isn't about what the witch wants. It was more about if there is a witch at all or if it is just something going on with Shawn. It wasn't an obvious thing, which I was thankful for, but it wasn't a big secret either. They did do a nice job of keeping me guessing as to which way it was going to end and I have to give a movie credit when it does that. I'm not sure that the ending explains everything that happened in the film though. Once it is revealed if there is a witch or not, the film takes us back through events but not all of them. Because of that, I wasn't sure if some things could be explained by the ending or not. The very last scene is really creepy though. There are some things I didn't like that managed to bring the film down some. This mostly comes from one scene where Shawn sets a trap for the crow and it works. He takes a knife and is going to kill the crow, but this turns out to be harder than he thought for some reason. The crow manages to fight back despite having one leg caught in a trap. It was a weird scene that turns out to look rather silly.
There isn't much for special effects. The witch looks kind of dead at times, which was some pretty good makeup for that. I'm not sure who played the witch, but she was pretty without the makeup to make her look dead. Shawn gets a bite on his thumb that starts to look pretty nasty once it gets infected but that is it as far as the effects go. The acting wasn't too bad. I rather enjoyed Maxine Bahns in her role but I felt that Andrew Bowen could feel flat at times. Overall I thought his acting was fine though. It was a surprise to see John Schneider in a horror film. Yes, I know which TV show he used to be on and I recognized him right away. He is around on and off but doesn't have much to do with any of the scary stuff that happens. Even so, he does a good job here.
While I enjoyed watching Conjurer, it didn't thrill me. I can always get behind a movie that leaves me guessing as to what is going on, which is why I won't give it a below average rating, but I did think the story could have been better. Everyone plays an important part in the story, but it is mostly just about Shawn. There is a point where it would seem that the witch is after Helen, but it would have been nice if she had seen some stuff happening as well. I get why the writers didn't allow that at least. Anyway, if Conjurer sounds like something you would like to watch, give it a try. While reviews aren't always nice to it, it does hit close to an average score so there are others that felt like I did in that this wasn't that bad of a film.
3 out of 5 I want a creepy looking cabin in my backyard
