The Conjuring 2 - Cinema Buffs Review by Nathan Fischer

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2016)

Before I went to go see this film, I watched the first Conjuring for the second time since 2013. I remember enjoying it, but upon viewing it a second time it came across as one of the most effective horror movies of recent memory. Now we have the sequel with James Wan returning to direct. This movie takes place after the events of the first film and also after Lorraine and Ed Warrens case in Amityville. The movie takes the same structure as the first. It dives directly in to the horror with an unrelated (or is it?) paranormal case. Then we meet the main family, their struggles with some sort of demonic entity, and Ed and Lorraine come in to help the situation. Although it is the same structure as the last movie, this is a completely different family, story, and location. And it is truly terrifying. The setting is New England. We meet a family of a single mother with four children. Very soon, eerie things begin to happen in the house. It starts at night but quickly starts to happening all the time. The entity has taken a liking to the middle child, a little girl played fantastically by actress Madison Wolfe. It is to be said that all the acting is top notch. There is even a little boy that has a speech impediment, which I thought could go south pretty quickly, but sure enough it is handled with respect and realism. It also focus' on the undeniable love and connection between Lorraine and Ed Warren which we didn't get too much of in the first. Like the first movie, this film is relentless with its terror. There are very few down times and when there are, they are short lived. I find James Won to be the horror master of a new generation. He is smart with his directing. He takes old tropes and gags and blatantly avoids them on screen until he finally gets you with genuine scares. He takes his time and uses the camera like an extension of his mind. I think a lot of this is because of how few cuts there are. The camera follows along, looking in one room then turning down a hallway to look in another. He often leaves his characters small in frame so the audience can look around the screen to catch any subtleties. In one scene, Ed Warren turns his back on the little girl so he can talk to the demon inside her. We see Ed in the foreground, completely in focus, and the little girl behind him, so blurry she is almost indistinguishable. But as the demon begins to speak, the little girl's blurry figure seems to be transforming as the conversation continues. It is horrifying but subtle. She is still very out of focus, so its makes it seem like our eyes are doing it, not the movie. I know I'm gushing, but the movie is not perfect. There are some odd moments of special effects that took me out of the moment. They were cool, but didn't seem to fit. It seemed like James Won was trying to have fun with something different and it just didn't match the overall tone of the film. Also, this movie seemed less grounded in reality then the first. I know sequels are prone to go bigger, and although it worked for this, it just didn't strike to the core of me like the first one did. Regardless, The Conjuring 2 is very scary and has heart to boot. I love seeing great horror in the theater. When it's well done and truly effective, you hear an audience worth of screams followed by and audience worth of laughter. It's just a good time.