The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Directed by James Wan
After the emergence of Paranormal Activity, demon possession and paranormal movies really came back with force. Movies such as Insidious and Sinister came out and were wildly popular. Along with those two movies, The Conjuring was released and was praised by horror fans everywhere. With the movie being a bit hit, it was obvious that there was going to be a sequel (hell even a spinoff of Annabelle), but would it live up to the first one?
The Conjuring 2 follows a family in London England that is dealing with paranormal problems. The middle child, daughter Janet has been seemingly possessed by a spirit that once lived in the old house. A local group of paranormal specialists attempt to prove that she is truly possessed and not faking the entire thing. They call upon the Warrens to help determine what is going on and hopefully help Janet before it is too late.
The acting in the movie is rather solid, even with the children which is sometimes hard to come by in the horror genre. Vera Farmiga returns in her role as Loraine Warren and she’s as great as always. I really enjoy her in everything she is in, and honestly in real life she seems like she’d be a really sweet lady. Patrick Wilson also returns as Ed, he is also pretty good but I think Vera steals the show, as always. I can’t really find anything to complain about acting wise in this movie, everyone does a good job. The dialogue is above average and you can feel the fear and strain on the family through how the lines are delivered and written. Janet, now that I think about it is actually very good as well. She is portrayed by Madison Wolfe. For a young actress she played the role so convincingly that I truly felt for her. The scenes where she’s crying do not seemed forced at all and you can almost feel her terror.
The special effects maybe the lone flaw in this movie. Some of the CGI is laughable at best. Scenes where the “crooked man” shows up had me laughing because it looked odd and out of place. He is almost built like Jack Skellington and about as cartoonish and nonrealistic. The Nun makes its return to the series as well, but it is handled with much more care than the Crooked Man. There isn’t really anything in the way of blood or gore, which isn’t surprising with this genre, it is more about scares than gore. The scenes involving furniture flying around, glass breaking, etc are handled pretty well and they’re convincing. The only part of the movie that I don’t like is the way the Crooked Man looks, he’s so bad looking and out of place that I can’t help but laugh.
This runs around 2 hours and 15 minutes but the pacing is really good. At no point did I get bored and wonder when it was going to end. The soundtrack is also good, you get a good amount of music from the time (1970s). There are also a few choir Christmas songs, which I guess are supposed to be creepy but they really don’t hit that with me to be honest. The instrumentals are great and bring suspense and a good feeling of atmosphere to the movie. The ending is kind of similar to the first Conjuring where we get a look into the Warren’s basement where Ed adds another haunted item to the collection. You know there is going to be a part 3, and probably more spinoffs. James Wan has done a good job of making this series have quality installments, even if Annabelle was kind of dumb. I haven’t seen the second Annabelle movie, so I really can’t speak for that though.
I really enjoyed this movie, it had some good scares and a creepy feel. I really hope if and when they make the third installment that they switch up the formula just a little bit because there was a lot of things this had in common with the first movie. The acting is above average and enjoyable. Although some of the CGI is bad, it wasn’t enough to fully take me out of the movie. If you have seen the first one, seen Annabelle or even seen a movie of this genre, give the Conjuring 2 a watch, because it may be better than the first one. I grade the Conjuring 2 a B+, the crappy looking Crooked Man knocks this down a little for me, and some of the scenes are a little predictable, but all in all it is a great movie.
