Does a lot considering the era and budget, but the first hour is a drag of hokey haunted house tropes. Doors that close by themselves, black cats, and windows that slam shut on fingers. This movie has them all. It's not like they're something the genre has moved away from over the years, but in most of the other options out there these things are the build up to something bigger. The stuff that lets you know that evil is on the way and some real scares too. For the majority of the movie I never got that feeling. Somewhat wasting an uncomfortable atmosphere and one of the creepier houses in cinema (don't the windows look like eyes?). At least until the last 45 minutes... What kept me watching until that point was the subplot about the priest who keeps trying to save the Lutz family at great personal cost. This sort of selfless bravery reminded me of The Warrens from The Conjuring series and a depiction of the kind of warmth so few get to experience with religion. Of course it also depicts the less open side of the church as well when the larger diocese refuses to even investigate the case. Instead brushing it off as a bunch of hooey. So much for the outreach program I guess... With paranormal afflictions keeping anyone of the cloth from being able to intervene, it's up to the family's friends to try and get to the bottom of George Lutz's increasingly antisocial behavior. That's when the movie starts to get really good. Demons lurk outside windows, blood leaks from the walls, and a satanic burial ground is found in the basement. The evil that seemed like a non-presence for about the first half of the film rears it's malevolent head and the chaos begins. As a sucker for possessed house films (demons are way scarier than ghosts!) this is when I started to enjoy myself. As a classic of the genre it should be watched by anyone who calls themselves an enthusiast. You can see how it influenced the countless other movies that followed. The first half+ hasn't aged well, but the final act does a lot to make up for that. Plus the no man, woman, child, or animal left behind ending shows the world what a REAL man looks like. For once I wasn't ticked to see someone run back into danger. Instead I cheered them on.