Conjurer

MONARCH
Street: Nov. 25
Prebook: Nov. 3
> Moody but uninvolving horror film eschews cheap shock effects but lacks punch.

Following the loss of their unborn child, photographer Shawn Burnett (Andrew Bowen) and his devastated wife Helen (Maxine Bahns) decide to leave the city behind and start fresh in rural surroundings. They buy a farmhouse adjacent to a supposedly haunted cabin, where strange things begin happening almost immediately. Director Clint Hutchison shrouds the story in faux-Gothic atmosphere, but very little actually happens in Conjurer. The film’s climax is vague and unexciting, diluting what little suspense has been built up to that point. Production values are adequate, as are the performances, but this film needed something more menacing than a crow supposedly possessed by the spirit of a long-dead witch.

Shelf Talk: Not having gore, nudity, graphic violence or rough language, Conjurer can be shown to viewers both younger and older than the 18 to 25 target demo for most contemporary horror films. The film looks and feels like something intended for cable-TV audiences.