Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring House (2021) by Kendall Whelpton and Vera Whelpton

Director: Kendall Whelpton and Vera Whelpton

Year: 2021

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Documentary

Plot:

Attempting to set up a new investigation, a group of paranormal experts is granted permission to film inside a famous hunted house, and as the investigation continues they start to realize that the events manage to build towards a potential figure living in the house and must find a way to get out.

Review:

This was a fairly enjoyable and original entry for this kind of film. Among the more impressive features here is the fact that this one is given a highly creative approach that mixes together a documentary-shoot-gone-wrong feel with a legitimate found-footage film. The whole gimmick of the group’s journey to get there and then set up for their later shoot which inevitably goes wrong is a fantastic blending of the styles which is thrown for a loop as time goes on. Since this is all interspersed with the backstory involving the history of the house and the connection to the movie in question adds a rather fun atmosphere to the setup here which is quite a fun feat with the later scenes offering some suspenseful encounters as they go along their investigation.

Once it gets to the investigation, though, this one does struggle with the inability to come up with anything really original or clever. The majority of the sequences here feature the same tepid style of someone reacting audibly to noise or a visual that no one else seemed to notice which feels fine the first few attempts but comes up lame in the subsequent run-throughs. This becomes all the more obvious to the usual assortment of tricks and sequences that are found in the genre involving paranormal investigations in strange buildings which is how this comes off even with the impressive nature of the scenes building a fine tension for the events to torment them. It’s just enough to lower this one slightly.

Overview: ***/5

A somewhat fun fake documentary that has some issues when it tries to be a more straightforward film where it devolves into some rather expected and familiar territory the longer it goes on. It's best to be used as a curiosity piece or those who appreciate this kind of style overall while most others who aren't interested in all that should heed caution with this one.