“The Conjuring 2” is pretty much the same way: some cheap scares, some genuine scares, but little to make it better or even distinguishable from dozens of other horror films just like it. What made The Conjuring so special was the unique scare tactics that James Wan employed like the clap scene, the realism and documentary like feel of the entire haunting, the creepy backstory of the witch and many other things which Conjuring 2 lacks.
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Indeed, in a refreshing scare twist, this sequel wisely takes the isolation of the desolate farm that was the horror “ground zero” of the first movie and completely turns it on it’s head. Sure, it has a few glitches here and there but overall, it is extremely well made film with acting nearly too good for a horror movie. Being attacked by evil spirits or being scrutinized by those who do not believe? We know what these types of ghosts/demons do, and there isn’t much from that respect that we haven’t seen before. Or are the merely the imagination and innovation of people to attract attention unto them? In the movie, they’re the real deal. From talking to [the real] Lorraine in passing, she mentioned a spectral entity that has haunted her in her house.
The plot is your basic ghost story. “The House in the AmityVille is Said to the Most haunted and Paranormal Documented One “. Frances O’Connor, as the clan’s single mother who’s unsure of how to protect her family from the increasingly violent bumps in the night, is quietly heartbreaking.
The good old familiar Warren family never lets our expectations down.
After this point in the storyline, the stakes are always raised. Cinematography comes by way of Oscar nominee Don Burgess. The brief recording insists that it is not just a horror movie that you saw, but it is indeed something that is present in the world around us, beneath the bed that we so comfortably sleep on, behind the cupboard ready to jump out, sneaking up behind you all the time, waiting for an opportunity to possess you, speak to you, levitate you and teleport you.
Its dismal estimated take of US$14.8 million piles on the disappointment for studio executives after it debuted with an underachieving US$35.3 million. Well, here’s the rarest of things: a follow-up that’s actually better than the first movie.
The remaining 10 most-popular films in the USA and Canada were “X-Men: Apocalypse” (10 million dollars), “Me Before You” (9.2 million), “The Angry Birds Movie” (6.7 million), “Alice Through The Looking Glass” (5.6 million), “Captain America: Civil War” (4.3 million) and “The Jungle Book” (2.7 million). The movie is not infested with scenes like black cat hissing at the protagonist or anything, but the familiar suspense of doors and windows banging on their own and such similar scenes are there to chill your spine.
It may not be as scary as the first film, but “The Conjuring 2” is still very satisfying.
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As for everything else in theaters, a peek at the Friday numbers from Box Office Mojo shows that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Me Before You will most likely return from last week to round out the top five. The look on their faces when they are scared out of their senses spread to us as well. As THE CONJURING 2 has it, Lorraine is also experiencing disturbing visions that gradually become relevant to the Hodgson case.
