In this Devil’s Advocates, horror scholar Kevin Wetmore examines what elements in the film are truly terrifying, how the filmmakers’ claims of being based on a true story hold up against the actual history of the haunting and the Warrens, and the relationship between The Conjuring and the many films in its universe. Along the way this book also considers how games, toys and dolls play an important role in the series, offers a critique of gender roles in the films, and asks the question, what is actually ‘conjured’ in The Conjuring? The delightful result is an in-depth, close reading of a film that uses standard horror tropes masterfully to create a truly scary film.
Kevin Wetmore is the author of Post-9/11 Horror in American Cinema, Back from the Dead: Reading Remakes of Romero's Zombie Films as Markers of their Times, and the editor of The Streaming of Hill House and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Uncovering Stranger Things, among other books. He is a professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, as well as an actor, director, and stage combat choreographer.