'The Conjuring' trailer opts for old-school spookiness

Despite the occasional bright spot in the form of "The Grey," "Cloverfield," "Taken" or others, January still maintains its reputation as something of a studio dumping ground while they prioritize the expansion of their awards darlings from the year before. Horror offerings at this time are often lay-ups for the under-served teen demographic -- take the success of this year's "Mama" and "Texas Chainsaw," or 2012's "The Devil Inside" -- so to see Warner Brothers relocate "The Conjuring" from January into the frequently horror-less summer season after it chalked up reportedly impressive test scores is a simple, but convincing vote of confidence.

And now we're treated to equally simple, but convincing marketing in the form of a new poster (pictured) and trailer (over at Apple). It shouldn't seem so impressive that this first look is so quiet, but in the age of bigger-louder-faster​, there's a confidence to the creepiness here that plays out over three simple scenes and hardly reveals much about the movie at all beyond Lili Taylor's panicked face and a playful pair of hands. The eagle-eyed can spot Ron Livingston as her husband at the start, and we've yet to even meet paranormal investigators Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.

From that faded-photograph-lik​e poster to the strikingly yellow title treatment, James Wan's follow-up to "Insidious" (and precursor to this summer's sequel) is giving off a welcome old-school vibe so far. We'll see how well it's deserved when "The Conjuring" hits theaters on July 19th.