THE CONJURING 2
Warner Bros.
2016 Color
134 Mins.
Horror/Thriller
Vera Farminga, Patrick Wilson, Franka Potente, Frances O' Connor, Madison Wolfe and Lauren Esposito star.
Written and Directed by James Wan
Rated PG-13 for violence and terror.
The Conjuring first arrived in the summer of 2013 with a ton of buzz and some kick ass trailers. I remember walking out of the the theater after seeing that film and saying to myself that it was one of the best horror movies I have ever seen and the most terrifying! It's an impossible bar that Wan had set for himself with that masterpiece. The film was a perfect storm of wonderful performances, brilliantly executed atmosphere, simplistic nightmarish scares and an engaging immersive story line. Now almost 3 years later he's returned and all the trailers and buzz leading up to this film are intriguing and mostly positive but don't seem to have the same pizzazz that the original had. Well I'm happy to say The Conjuring 2 is a great film, it's just not as great as the original. This time around they center on the famous Enfield haunting in London. One in which a young girl and her family was seemingly attacked by a vengeful spirit. All the haunted house tropes are there and Wan has definitely fine tuned his successful approach from the corridors with thick atmosphere, to the slight fog that covers the ground outside and most effective the use of lighting and wide lensed cinematography to exploit the audiences fears.
The minor problems the film has have to do with it just being a bit too overdone in places.There is definitely an air of more is more which almost always end up with equaling less. The film is so thick in places with a multitude of creative but unnecessary scare sequences it can become a bit much. The least effective being a "babbadookesque" creature, The scares that work the best in my opinion include a picture out of focus that begins to take on a life of it's own, a sliding chair that's horrifying in it's timing, a scene involving a young boy and his truck and there are of course a multitude of others. Also terrifying is the Nun character, that thing has scarred my psyche indefinitely. The performances are all strong Wilson and especially Faminga deliver powerful turns and have a moving chemistry. Although everyone delivers, the family seems to be less effective even though they are given more screen time. That is due in part to the film's execution. It's no doubt that the story is about the Warren's this time around and the family and haunting seem to take a slight bit of a back seat. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it seems that Wan is creating a Marvelesque universe of characters and story lines. Take for instance the scary beginning that highlights the Amityville haunting this time around. Ultimately less effective than the Annabelle turn in the first film this is no doubt scarier than all of the remake, all of the sequels and most of the original. Wan is no doubt immensely talented knowing not just how to execute his scares and his atmosphere but make them memorable and emotionally effective. He does this by really making you care about the characters and by giving these films a real sense of genuine reality. He also has a real sense of what the audience wants and delivers it in spades. The film culminates to an effective, special effects ridden finale which doesn't hold the simplistic thrills of the original but is nail bitingly suspenseful because the stakes feel higher. In conclusion Conjuring 2 is no doubt a great effective horror film with frightening set pieces and emotional resonance. It's not as effective as the original but a less is more approach in the anticipated sequel could be more on the par with the instant classic original. And hopefully they move forward with a more classic approach to the inevitable Amityville spinoff unlike what they did with the silly Annabelle movie. ****.5/5
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