(USA, 134 min.)
Dir. James Wan, Writ. Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, James Wan,
David Johnson
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Madison Wolfe, Frances O’Connor, Lauren Esposito, Simon McBurney,
Franka Potente, Maria Doyle Kennedy
 |
| Vera Farmiga stars as Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring 2. |
James Wan conjures some solid scares in his thoroughly
satisfying follow-up to one of the best horror films in recent years. The
original The Conjuring (2013) sets a
high bar for a sequel with its chilling tale of true horror that merits
comparisons to The Exorcist. The Conjuring 2 matches the calibre of
the original film and delivers some truly scary jolts, thrilling set pieces,
and bone-chilling imagery that are marred only by the film’s exhausting running
time. When the majority of movies hitting theatres are sequels, reboots, or remakes,
The Conjuring 2 is the rare case of
franchise filmmaking that doesn’t play like derivative garbage.
I gasped audibly and embarrassingly loud, like a child, at least five times during The Conjuring 2. While I watched most of the original film with the lights on and my eyes averted to the floor, this worthy follow-up is great to see with a horde or screamers. Wan shows that every cliché in the realm of haunted house spooks still has the ability to shake the audience and make viewers shriek in their seats. Chairs rock, floors creak, and ghosts arise in loud pop-out surprises, yet they’re all terrifying, suspenseful, and fresh.
The film brings married mystics Ed and Lorraine Warren
(Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) back to spook central when a curse from their
Amityville days crosses the pond and haunts a family in London. Lorraine, the
stronger of the two paranormal investigators, sees something ghastly and awful
in the film’s opening preamble that puts her in the cellar where the real
Amityville horror took place. She witnesses some dead kids (as one always
does), a demonic nun, and Ed, dead. The stakes are real this time as her
premonition latches onto her and the nun appears in their home while another
force terrorises the Hodgson family in England.
The youngest Hodgson, Janet (Madison Wolfe, who isn't the strong presence that Lili Taylor is in the first film), is the film’s
resident creepy kid as a sinister force in their house invades her body.
Whereas the first Conjuring brings in
a demonic presence through a playful top, this Conjuring puts the carrier and the boogeyman together, as Peggy’s
brother Billy (Benjamin Haigh) plays with an eerie zoetrope that evokes the
rhyme of a crooked man, who invades their home and knocks on doors like Mr.
Babadook. If there’s any downside to The
Conjuring 2, it’s that the two films are divided into the pre-Babadook and post-Babadook eras of horror. They’re more or less the same film, with
the Aussie chiller undeniably superior, but the true crime source of Ed and
Lorraine Warren adds some street cred to The
Conjuring 2, especially if one stays for the credits.
Farmiga once again gets the juicy role of Lorraine and she possesses
the character with unnerving composure and iciness. Wilson’s Ed doesn’t have
nearly as much depth or complexity as Lorraine does, since he mostly plays the
straightforward stalwart hero, so The
Conjuring 2 follows the original’s dynamic of putting the final act
primarily in Farmiga’s hands. The task works to the film’s benefit, since the
actress can scare a viewer to the bone by rattling her paranormal investigator
so intensely. The Conjuring 2 also
asks the audience to have a little faith in the actress as Lorraine carries a
heavy spiritual side and the film climaxes with a confrontation of beliefs. The Conjuring, like The Exorcist, draws significantly from the religious elements of
demonic possession. It works, though, because it challenges the audience to
confront faith, something many viewers see as a comfort, as something that can
also wield evil powers.
The plot of this Conjuring
is essentially the same as the first one with a family in peril within a
haunted house, but with the Warrens getting their own battle. Despite the
familiarities in plot and story, this Conjuring
is endlessly suspenseful. Wan knows that true horror breathes not in a
story, but within cinematic space. The director devilishly manipulates time and
space within The Conjuring 2 and uses
long takes, silence, and patience as catalysts for intense jolts. The film
lingers as eerie forces lurk outside the frame and the film plays into the
masterful element of horror that invites audiences to imagine the scares with
their own minds. (The film’s at its weakest when it actually shows the spirits,
although some pop-out scares admittedly bring a fright.) Wan, working with DP
Daniel Burgess, throws in some off-kilter crane shots that twist the action for
the audience to see it as if from the vantage point of a child whose head turns
360° with the help of a demon within. The more space the film takes in, and the
longer it holds these breathtaking shots, the more it wracks up tension to
release it with a scream.
The Conjuring 2 is now in theatres.
