iReview: The Conjuring (2013)

Starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor. Written by Chad and Carrey Hayes. Directed by James Wan. 

If I had directed this film, I'd be one proud young lad.  From the inception to execution, the movie is a smart move all the way.  In this gizmo drenched and uncomfortably transparent world, establishing a horror story in present times is an awkward affair.  Perhaps that's one reason why most of the "scary" films are subterfuge for some weird psychotic experience a character once had in his/her life because ghosts don't stand a chance in the age of Facebook and androids (of course, there are exceptions).

The Conjuring is set in 70's burbs, isolating us from the intruding eyes of technology and hullabaloo of a city.  Throw a grainy dated film look and you're asking for some paranormal activity.   The Conjuring is not pretentious. It believes in everything it depicts - from Satan to demons to spirits. This unabashed conviction bleeds into a viewer as a very personal macabre tale. Simply put, we live their world. 

Ed and Lorraine Warren are a couple who takes pride as "demonologists" but have had their fare share of close calls. Ed, hesitant to take on any case due to the toll their work has taken on Lorraine, succumbs to Carolyn's helpless plea. Carolyn moved to a dilapidated house with her husband, Roger, and four children. Soon after relocation, they found something in the house was awry.  And after some gleefully scary sequences, we find out what the real problem is.  

The movie isn't path breaking in terms of script and plot.  But the execution (like repeated use of zoom, the grainy look) is so reminiscent of yesteryear's classic horror films, a viewer is sucked into the center of drama. Such films, with so deep belief in the occult, are only suitable for a period drama not because they are too ludicrous for contemporary films but the isolation and simplicity of the old times hosts darkness with much more welcoming hands.   I'd say, this one is a winner. 

Feminists just don't get it

“Freedom, if truly alive, manifests itself like the invisible air does in one’s life.”

Courtesy: genderacrossborders

The main beef I have with feminists is that they really don’t understand the magnitude of significance their cause holds towards a social revolution.  These feminists keep stacking one stopgap measure on another and after a while when the bleeding doesn't stop, nobody takes them seriously.  You see, to cure an injury, not only we have to stop the bleeding but our immune system needs to clot the blood.  Let them work on stopgap; we’ll talk about the real issue. 

Female to male ratio especially in developing nations is disconcerting to say the least. The pro-life hippies, the priests and the conservative lot target female feticide and infanticide rampant in the region because these charlatans don’t want you to face the real issue at hand - a social stratosphere immensely warped against women.  Who is responsible for such heinous realities is trivial because those monsters have dried up an eon ago, but what keeps oppression simmering should be the topic of self-introspection at night while staring at the dark, ominous ceiling. This is soul searching and don’t confuse it with some weird transcendental meditative experience which isn't real.

Such elemental parts of our society’s fabric as religion, deism and marriage are nothing but socially imposed oppression sugarcoated with romantic notions.   I have to give some credit to these priests and the conservative lot for figuring out that their existence is justified till women are the weakest link in the society.   But let’s not forget that unmarried does not mean not in love or incapable of being a parent or part of a lifelong relationship. 

Courtesy: World of Stock

Hence, in every walk of life - financial, educational, physical, sexual and perceptual – women should be treated equally to men if we care to solve the problem.  Lack of education (in developing nations), the vicious circle of reproduction and the resulting preconceived notion of dependency is what women need to be liberated from.  Studies show an educated and financially independent woman is less likely to marry in her 20s or marry at all than her counterpart.   And once a woman has complete control on her birthing patterns, she lifts herself beyond unplanned responsibilities and financial burdens.  If she can live independently, she would probably prefer it. 

But since these oppressions jut out from within us, they are the most difficult to tackle as this requires a protest against ourselves and the belief systems etched into our genes for centuries.  So, we don’t.  We’d rather have a government which tackles these oppressions with more legislative oppressions than to face ourselves. 

Most of the bans that our governments have in place are beyond me on a fundamental level.   I have always believed that government’s role is to liberate us from anything that threatens the cause of freedom in the first place but I might just be shooting Dixie out of my rear end.  We must not forget that the writers of the constitutions were part of the society as well. We have criminal laws against rape, but not universal abortion rights. We have criminal laws against domestic violence, but our governments also recognize marital unions.   This schizophrenic government is a mirror reflection of us. 

Courtesy: parentslife.tumblr.com

Government should lift the anti-abortion laws, laws that benefit and propound marital unions and the anti-drug laws but the story will not end there.  Freedom of abortion alone is naturally going to exacerbate low female to male ratio and failure to recognize marriage alone will harm financially dependent women.  Any retardation of freedom, and the key word is any, is retardation of freedom in entirety.  We must not only lift legislative bans but liberate ourselves from socially imposed oppressions as well. 

As a non sequitur, the reason you love those rebellious Bollywood romances is because you wanted your love story to be like that.  But, alas, your story sucks.