The Conjuring 2
Directed by: James Wan
Written by: Carey Hayes & Chad Hayes & James Wan and David Johnson
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Frances O'Connor, Lauren Esposito, Benjamin Haigh, Patrick McAuley, Simon McBurney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Simon Delaney, Franka Potente, Bob Adrian, Robin Atkin Downes, Bonnie Aarons, Javier Botet, Steve Coulter, Annie Young, Elliot Joseph
Horror - 133 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 7 June 2016
Written by: Carey Hayes & Chad Hayes & James Wan and David Johnson
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Frances O'Connor, Lauren Esposito, Benjamin Haigh, Patrick McAuley, Simon McBurney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Simon Delaney, Franka Potente, Bob Adrian, Robin Atkin Downes, Bonnie Aarons, Javier Botet, Steve Coulter, Annie Young, Elliot Joseph
Horror - 133 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 7 June 2016
The trailer for 2013’s The Conjuring spawned a tidal wave of interest in the movie; a two minute slice of the film filled the audience with dread. It was the clapping hands. I recall audiences howling after watching the hands clap behind Lily Taylor’s head as she stared down the basement stairs with only a match. To even attempt to capture a hint of magic from the first film’s atmosphere, director James Wan must come up with a hook as terrifying as those hands. The hook this time around isn’t as shocking, but it will catch the attention of Conjuring fans; it’s the man’s voice coming out of the young girl. Playing with an Exorcist vibe because a young girl is falling under demonic possession, Wan jumps over to England creating an effective horror/thriller atmosphere but falling just short of matching his earlier achievement.
The Warrens are back. Ed and Lorraine (Patrick Wilson, Young Adult, and Vera Farmiga, The Judge) are recovered from cleansing the Perron house in Connecticut, solved the Amityville Horror in Long Island, an event skipped over but covered in several other films from the ‘70s and ‘80s, and are on the verge of taking a sabbatical before the church asks them to investigate a possible haunting in Enfield, a north London suburb. They listen to a tape recorder where a grizzled-sounding old man calling himself Bill Wilkins demands everyone leave his house. The problem is the person talking is 11 year-old Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe, Keanu).
The Warrens are back. Ed and Lorraine (Patrick Wilson, Young Adult, and Vera Farmiga, The Judge) are recovered from cleansing the Perron house in Connecticut, solved the Amityville Horror in Long Island, an event skipped over but covered in several other films from the ‘70s and ‘80s, and are on the verge of taking a sabbatical before the church asks them to investigate a possible haunting in Enfield, a north London suburb. They listen to a tape recorder where a grizzled-sounding old man calling himself Bill Wilkins demands everyone leave his house. The problem is the person talking is 11 year-old Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe, Keanu).
Wan films a very convincing 1977 England. From the garish wallpaper, the pop idols adorning the girls’ room, and evidence of a struggling family led by a shaky single mom (France O’Connor), something is not right in the Hodgson residence. Almost tilting too far over to remind us what late ‘70s England looked like, Wan plays us a long segment of The Clash’s London Calling and provides an out of place montage of riots, strikes, and a younger Margaret Thatcher. We catch a glimpse of much younger Queen Elizabeth II but there is no royalty and gilded palaces in Enfield; the haunting occurs in an end row house with a flooded basement, molding walls, and a petrified family.
Janet is not only accosted by the evil spirit; she is used by it. Bill Wilkins speaks through her when confronted by the Warrens and a fellow paranormal investigator (Simon McBurney, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation). She shivers and screams under the covers as the boogeyman hovers just outside but will also commit atrocities herself when the spirit takes her over. The Conjuring 2 easily raises goosebumps on its audience by showing us a young, innocent girl as the victim of the supernatural. She is just about helpless. We feel far more sympathy for her than previous adult victims; Wan is playing with our natural feelings toward the young.
Wan piles on a bit more frustration because Janet and the rest of Hodgsons find it hard to provide proof of all the mayhem. Voices can be faked and rooms can be destroyed without the hand of a menacing demon. The Warrens are usually the first to hop on the believer’s bandwagon, but something in the house clouds Lorraine’s usually perceptive clairvoyance. The shaking beds and tricks with crucifixes are all Exorcist homages but there are glimpses of one of the scariest nuns ever filmed stalking Lorraine even back at her house in America. The idea that such a holy image as a nun now has piercing yellow eyes, cracked, grey hands, and jagged teeth is quite perverse and accomplishes a lot of the horror Wan is looking for.
Grounding the film in such a realistic setting also escalates our fear. There are dirty dishes in the sink and laundry to do. The kids leave a mess in their rooms. We identify with these characters and when you do that, you tend to ask yourself what would you do in this particular situation. Asking what you would do if an old man suddenly appeared out of the shadows and started strangling you is a sign of a pretty good horror film. We know Wan is going to zing us with a jump scare but we’ve seen his horror films before, from the original Saw to the two Insidious movies and the first Conjuring. We know the scare is not coming from the most obvious place, around the corner or from under the bed. It’s going to come from somewhere unexpected and the best part for folks who like to be scared is we already know it’s going to get us; prepare for a couple jumps.
Returning to his horror roots from jumping cars out of cargo aircraft and through skyscrapers in Furious 7, James Wan knows how to tell a scary tale and jolt his audience. We are already familiar with the Warren duo and what to expect generally from the demons they encounter so the law of diminishing returns is in effect. The Conjuring 2 is not as scary as its predecessor but it’s no pushover. Young Madison Wolfe as Janet is phenomenal in a roll requiring her to shed tears and quake with fear. We believe she is in trouble as does everybody else; even the police who come to investigate get the hell out of the house. Truly effective horror films are tough to come by since the majority of them fall in the B-movie, gore-infused sub-genre that stalks the more high-minded thriller, so take advantage of another James Wan success.
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