The Insidious movies and the original The Conjuring were a great demo of both those qualities, and The Conjuring 2 is a nice little reminder that Wan is better off making these horror films rather than Fast and Furious sequels. Now 3 years on, we finally see the sequel to what can easily be said was one of the best horror films of recent times. Complete with gothic imagery, a well-crafted story, and a surprising amount of depth, it’s a truly welcome surprise. Also, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return to portray the most famous American paranormal investigator couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren.
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A year later in the London suburb of Enfield, the Hodgson family – mom and four kids – are starting to experience problems with their council house that go beyond general shabbiness and a leak that is filling the basement with water. The Warrens – and the filmmakers – take it for granted that demons bedevil hapless mortals, without thinking much about why or how.
New Conjuring 2 movie got mostly positive reviews from top critics. For example, Peggy calls the police early on and informs them of the things going bump in the night. So the cops don’t believe her and contribute nothing, right? To drive away the family, he employs the usual prankish poltergeist tricks (bashing furniture around the place) and ye olde possession of the hapless Janet, who begins sleepwalking and even teleporting under the influence of the old bugger. After all, you can’t arrest and incarcerate a spirit.
Owen Gleiberman from Variety, gave it a 70 score, saying: “Wan has a gift that most slam-bang horror directors today do not: a sense of the audience – of their rhythm and pulse, of how to manipulate a moment so that he’s practically controlling your breathing”. If not, there are lots of other horror movies that just breeze through. He does a masterful job at building up each scene and then throws a curve ball at us. Either way, you rarely know what’s waiting around every corner. Wan further elevates his film with crafty cinematography, sharp editing, and a lingering style that never gets in your face. Wan brings the monster vividly to life, and in its scaled-up hokum, The Conjuring 2 charts a future for studio horror. Though there are plenty of witnesses, some experts suspect a hoax; with the church agreeing to help out if their “agents” Ed and Lorraine Warren can confirm the ghost is real. The rapport they develop with young Janet is also quite poignant.
There’s nothing particularly distinctive about The Conjuring 2, which is more about repurposing old effects than adding new ones. Wan cuts back and forth across the ocean, playing a waiting game as obvious and as frustrating as the one where you wait for the man and woman to get together after a series of false starts in a bad rom-com. It’s standard-issue scary movie stuff – weird sounds, toys turn on by themselves, etc.
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Awards wise, I don’t think this will be a player, but there’s an outside shot that we could see The Conjuring 2 contend for a technical nomination or two at the Academy Awards.
