A better and scarier film than the first

Rating: 6/10 (9 June 2016)

The 1977 British haunting known as the Enfield Poltergeist has sparked controversy and has been accused of being complete hogwash. The famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) have now got their work cut out for them with this one. But director/co-writer James Wan is not concerned about busting myths. The guy wants us to be scared silly and have a ball. He has succeeded. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
That's the modus operandi of Wan's latest scare-a-thon, the sequel to the 2013 summer blockbuster. This is better than the first – bigger, scarier and much more intense. The first film was fun, but it relied too heavily on nostalgic and retro traits, having aped/paid homage to 1979's "The Amityville Horror". This new one is no different – it acts as a "greatest hits" album of classic horror movie moments – specifically, those of "Poltergeist" and "The Exorcist".
Wan's passion for the genre shines through in every scene. His unnerving atmosphere soaks the film in a shroud of doom and gloom, relentlessly unleashing his old- school house of horrors until the curtain call. It creaks, it moans, it shrieks when need be, never short-changing the character development and audience in the process.
This is not the horror film of the year so far (that honour belongs to the haunting indie film "The Witch"), but as far as popcorn horror films go, this one's really good - and a good stepping stone to introduce newcomers to "Exorcist"-style classics, a trait which I suspect was Wan's true intention all along, having already establishing himself as today's go-to filmmaker for spooky films.