Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home Review: An Entertaining Paranormal Investigation That Won't Change Your Mind

Release date: July 13, 2021
Running time: 80 minutes
Directed By: Vera Whelpton, Kendall Whelpton
Cast: Kendall Whelpton, Vera Whelpton, Brian Murray, Richel Stratton, Cory Heinzen, Jennifer Heinzen, John Huntington

The world-famous haunted house that inspired the Conjuring films has recently been sold and is now open to paranormal investigations. A small group of close friends is invited to move in and document a real haunted house for two weeks. Filmmakers Vera and Kendall Whelpton, along with their paranormal investigator friends Richel Stratton and Brian Murray immerse themselves deep into the experience. With hopes of capturing real paranormal evidence day and night, the team will investigate and document the house best known for a seance gone wrong, with a possible demonic possession. Will they be able to make it through their stay? Do spirits still haunt this home or is it something more sinister? 

This film is from the Producers and Director of the House in Between.  And as with that film and so many others, it is a strong effort but one that will not convert a skeptic into a believer.  However, if you are a skeptic it will give you something interesting to watch and if you are a believer, this will reinforce your beliefs.  What this film does right and is bring together six charismatic and fun to watch people into a "haunted" house, the house that inspired the Conjuring.  It has some really nice cinematography to show the surrounding woods and some beautiful night scenes to see just how isolated this house is.  And the experiences that the group have do provide entertainment.  I liked the characters and everyone was open to the paranormal experiences.  And the group do go into some strange and uncomfortable places looking for evidence of the paranormal.  Some of the phenomena they witness are interesting, but nothing conclusively shows what could have happened.  

The film also has the telltale issues of these paranormal investigation films, where there are cameras set up everywhere yet everything seems to happen just off camera or at angles that make it tough to disprove that something could be staged.  Doors open (but we don't see both sides), sounds happen (but just off camera), things break (but again just off camera).  For a film that tries to show how much equipment they brought and set up for this event there is a lot that happens off screen.  And there is one scene that appears to show some sort of string pulling an item; this might not be from this filming or it might be a video artifact, but it did not do much to curb my skepticism.  And although a decent number of high tech equipment was used in this investigation, it was not explained well enough for me to understand exactly what was happening.  Sure noises would happen or lights would light up, but I didn't know what that meant other than something was happening.  This is also something common with these types of investigation films; fancy looking equipment is brought out and does something, but what that means was lost on me.  And maybe this is just how it was cut, but the film seemed to end right as the paranormal events started to ramp up.  

Additionally, this film doesn't have enough of the backstory of the house.  I wanted to see what made this house so haunted; what were the events and what were the reported sightings that caused this house to become so infamous.  I know that it inspired the Conjuring, but beyond that there is little told.  

Sleepless Unrest is an entertaining paranormal investigation that will not change your mind, but it provides some creepy footage and plenty of evidence for those that want to believe.

Rent it.

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Sleepless Unrest available digitally and on demand on July 13, 2021.  

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