A great horror sequel, not as good as the first

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2016)

The Conjuring 2 is a period piece horror film that continues the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, two demonologists who are most well known for their investigations into the Amityville haunting. The first film was set before Amityville and concerned one of their lesser known cases. This film is set after Amityville, and mainly concerns the Enfield Poltergeist.
The films obviously take a lot of liberties to what *actually* happened. Let's just say that this film is set in an alternate reality where every investigation the Warren family looks into is entirely true. If anyone looks into the actual footage and evidence in the case, it seems to be a pretty elaborate hoax, but in this film, it isn't.
That being said, this is an incredibly effective horror film, and some moments definitely caused me to feel incredibly anxious, and I frequently felt the need to push against the seat to get as far away from the screen as possible. The family is incredibly charming and likable, and the acting, especially the main girl character, I found to be quite impressive. There is also a carryover story from the first film concerning the Warren family, as they question the reason why they do what they do.
There were some cheesy moments throughout the film that distracted me a little. Some weird and out of place editing choices and other minor stuff. There is an over reliance of CGI in a few scenes that I found distracting. CGI, especially when it's CGI characters, are incredibly hard to make scary, and this film is no exception. However, for the most part this issue is avoided in favour of more traditional methods of scaring the audience.
Overall a quality film that is definitely worth watching if you liked the first film. It's not a better film than the first, but there isn't a massive drop in quality that occasionally occurs in sequels.