Ed and Lorraine Are Back!

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2016)

Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and his clairvoyant wife, Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) are back ghost-busting in this frightening sequel to "The Conjuring." Ed and Lorraine find helping out families with their ghostly problems is too much for them and both want to retire after the Amityville haunting. Lorraine rein-acts what happened in the house in her mind and it is frightening to her! She also sees this demonic nun (Bonnie Aarons) in her visions.
All the retirement plans change when a priest brings a tape recording to them to listen to. It is a man speaking in a British accent and Ed thinks the man is possibly senile. The priest tells him no. The owner of the voice is an 11-year-old girl named Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe) who lives in the burg of Enfield, England in a 2 story house with her mom and siblings in 1977. Her father ran off with a neighbor lady who bore him twins.
The Hodgson family consists of Peggy (Frances O'Connor), older sister Margaret (Lauren Esposito), and two little brothers Billy (Benjamin Haigh) and Johnny (Patrick McAuley). It has not been an easy time for the family after the man of the house left. Johnny is teased mercilessly by the kids at school because he stutters and Peggy worries how she will support herself and 4 kids. Into all of this Janet and Margaret are hearing noises late at night and the furniture starts to move on its own. Peggy doesn't know what to do about these disturbances and the police who visit her suggest she call the TV station and go on air telling the world what is happening to them. Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney) who challenges the Warrens at every turn, shows Margaret and Janet on his show. Janet starts talking in the deep voice and the lights flash on an off.
There are more hauntings with Janet being levitated off the ground and Johnny's zoetrope with the Crooked Man coming alive. The Crooked Man is played by Javier Botet and I think with his body structure and the fact he can move his arms and legs in strange ways due to Marfan Disease makes him a creepy addition to the movie!
It is revealed Janet is possessed by a man who died in her house and he reveals his name to be Bill Wilkins. Bill doesn't want to go to heaven or hell and the creepy nun is stopping his spirit from moving on. Another reveal that came as a surprise: Janet caused some of the furniture to move and it was caught on video by Anita Gregory (Franka Potente). Janet has no choice but to confess what she did and the Warrens leave. In the train, Lorraine has a vision of Bill Wilkins and he tells her he can't move on. He is held by a demon and the Warrens have to reveal the entity's name.
When they go back to the Hodgson house, the haunting is in full force with no help from Janet and Lorraine realizes she knows the demon's name because during a vision she wrote it in her Bible. She reveals the name just as demon is throwing Janet and Ed out of the window to their deaths.
This is great, creepy movie with wonderful performances from Patrick, Vera, and the rest of the cast! Madison Wolfe is also effective as the traumatized Janet who doesn't understand why the haunting is happening and she just wants to be a normal young girl who has a father and who isn't teased at school. This is a worthy sequel to "The Conjuring"!