Rating of
3/4
Entertaining Sequel
Unknown - wrote on 06/20/16
'The Conjuring 2' sees the return of the exact same creative force from the first 'Conjuring' film. I loved the previous for it's focus on amplifying the basic essentials of a horror film to an eleven, delivering some great memorable scares in the process. The same is done here. We get a well paced shock treatment courtesy of acclaimed horror director James Wan, as well as a good story with characters worth investing in. Wilson and Farmiga's married paranormal investigators are once again the center of drama. Their personal relationship is seamlessly interwoven with the violent haunting of this less fortunate family. It's through the Warren's commitment to other's in need that we end up caring for the family as much. I found myself a bit more emotionally invested in the Warren's than before. A major credit to the intent of the writers. It's refreshing to see this level of care put into more than just the genre elements. But, those elements are back in full force. A solid collection of hair-raising moments deliver many effective jolts. Scenes play out with the right amount of pause. This leads to one of my only main gripes. While I was induced with fear at the correct times and had many reactions to the scares, there were some times when the film relied a bit too heavily on genre cliches. Some scares were not as effective as possible because of their predictability. The best example would be the opening scene detailing the Warren's visit to the famous Amityville house, in which Lorraine travels through the house in a kind of out-of-body experience. The setup for this scene was excellent, but it's littered with "boo" scares right off the bat. This, in turn, caused me to take longer to settle into the film and be prepped for the better stuff to come. There were moments like this in the finale with flying furniture, crumbling structure, hallowing wind, and screaming demonic forces. It was exciting, but it did feel a bit too bombastic. The possession of the little girl was also too close to cliche. I've never found possession to be all that scary in film, especially when it involves a seventy year old man's voice immolating from a small girl. It was restrained just barely enough for me to not find silly, but it still took me out of the movie for a short time. There are plenty of other means in which the film made affected me with it's horror. Still one of the best horror sequels I've seen to a major studio release. A really fun watch.
