Conjurer (2009)

Red Five Entertainment

Peacock Films

R4 DVD

Once again Peacock shows us that a budget film does not have to be a bad film. Despite a fairly conventional plot Conjurer has all the elements of a good film – acting, script and cinematography are first-class.

A young photographer, Shawn, and his wife Helen move into a house in a backwoods area. On the property is an old cabin that their neighbours are reluctant to talk about. Shawn gradually pieces together the story. Just after the American Civil War a soldier returned to his home and found the cabin built on his land without his permission. It was occupied by a girl who was a “conjurer” – partly witch, partly natural magician. Wanting her off his land, he arranged to have her baby (which he may have fathered) killed. When that didn’t move her on a group of men hung the girl. Before she died she cursed them all and said she would never leave the land until she got her baby back. Since then strange sightings and events have occurred and the property is clearly haunted.

Shawn himself starts to experience odd apparitions. Each time he investigates the cabin he seems to anger the spirit of the conjurer and she starts to turn her attention to the main house. Shawn is concerned for his wife, who he discovers is pregnant. Is the conjurer after Helen’s baby? Can Shawn keep his cool long enough to find a way to fight the conjurer off? Helen and her brother are now concerned about Shawn’s sanity. Shawn wants to move away but he is in debt to Helen’s brother for the house and Helen herself has seen nothing to be afraid of.

The plot may be conventional but the acting and realistic dialogue lift it to well above average for this type of film. The cinematography skilfully highlights the contrasts between the rather beautiful wooded area and the dusty, ominous insides of the cabin. Don’t dismiss it as just another ghost story – it really is something better than most.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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