The Conjuring 2: Movie Review
James Wan’s 2013 surprise horror hit, “The Conjuring” turned out to be one of my favorite spook-fests of the past decade. It is a modern horror classic that is hard to beat. Wan left trying his hand at big-budget action with 2015’s “Furious 7”, before returning to what he does best with “The Conjuring 2”. So, how does the sequel measure up to the original? Quite nicely! Aside from running about twenty minutes longer than the first film and some pacing issues, “The Conjuring 2” delivers on the quality of the original and the scares (just fewer of them).
Set in 1977, the story opens with Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively) handling a case at the infamous Amityville house. The experience takes a toll on Lorraine and the accusations in the media that they are charlatans forces the couple to step away from their work in the paranormal. That all changes when the Church convinces the Warrens to travel to North London and collect evidence that a young girl is actually being possessed by a demon. The Church will only help the family if a possession can be proven.
Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor) is having a hell of a time. Her husband has left the family, she is broke, and she is forced to raise four children on her own. To make matters worse, it seems that a nasty spirit has attached itself to one of her daughters, Margaret (Lauren Esposito). Now the whole family is living in terror and even going across the street to their neighbor’s house won’t keep the evil away. When the Warrens arrive at the Hodgson’s home, Lorraine is unable to detect a presence, however she does believe there is something going on.
Wan excels at directing horror, with only one weak film in his filmography (“Insidious: Chapter 2”). Not enough love is given to 2007’s “Dead Silence”. With “The Conjuring 2” he continues to deliver classy-not-trashy horror. That being said, there are some missteps. A spinning “Crooked Man” zoetrope, which is belongs to one of the children actually comes to life. While watching the sequence all I could think was that they included this in order to make a spin-off movie (ala “Annabelle”). The difference here is that the “Annabelle” opening in “The Conjuring” worked great, this scene did not. Another issue is that “The Conjuring 2” just feels too long. If the run-time would have about twenty minutes shorter, than I feel a tighter and better film would exist. Having said that, I still feel “The Conjuring 2” is pretty damn good.
There are some great scares on display here. One sequence involving a shadow and a painting is easily my favorite and then another one in a flooded basement definitely made me jump. Really good horror films are few and far between so fans of the genre won’t want to miss this one.
By: Marc Ferman