A Superior, Scarier Film than the Original CONJURING

Rating: 8/10 (26 August 2017)

I don't generally put a whole lot of faith into horror sequels. More often than not, they're just trying to recreate the success of what made the first film popular and fail to bring anything new to the table. So many of them are unapologetic cash-grabs that I often won't pay attention to news that sequels are in the pipeline, even when I enjoyed the first film. I thought INSIDIOUS was a creepy, fun little film but I never once cared about the second chapter and still haven't bothered to see it. Until just a moment ago, I was completely unaware that there has, in fact, been a third chapter and there's a fourth in production. Speaking of James Wan and Patrick Wilson, the first CONJURING was another decent horror. I think it was over-hyped and I might've gone in with my expectations a little high, but I enjoyed it. I had zero interest in the idea of a second film, believing they'd gone the route of every other successful horror with a seemingly never-ending explosion of sequels and spin-offs (for the record, I never saw ANNABELLE and have no desire to do so) but I was caught off-guard when THE CONJURING 2 started receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and in the end I'm glad I did because I'm actually of the opinion that THE CONJURING 2 is superior to the first film. So I suppose it's a rare exception to the rule.
THE CONJURING 2 revisits the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, two of the most famous paranormal investigators. It opens with a glimpse into their involvement in the investigation of the Amityville house, where Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) conducts a séance and comes face-to-face with some sort of evil spirit in the form of an evil nun. Unlike the first film where their Annabelle investigation was just a cold open to introduce the pair in action, the nun becomes an integral part of THE CONJURING 2, tormenting Lorraine long after finishing at Amityville with visions of Ed's (Patrick Wilson) death. It's her confrontation with the nun and these spectral threats that lead her to swearing off hands-on investigations, and she and Ed decide to limit their activity to seminars and interviews. Meanwhile, in England, a new supernatural occurrence has taken up residence in the home of a single mother and her four children. It's set its sights on the youngest daughter, Janet (Madison Wolfe), and it's not long before her over-stressed mother takes notice and affirms that this isn't a child's prank. Her family is being tortured nightly and Janet is suffering more and more as the entity breaks her spirit in hopes of possessing her body for its own purposes. The misery of a young child proves too much for Lorraine to turn away, and she and Ed jet off across the Atlantic to verify the poltergeist's existence and hopefully get the Catholic Church involved in exorcising the spirit.
The Enfield Poltergeist is apparently one of the more famous Warren investigations. I wasn't familiar with the details of it prior to this movie but I had seen the photographs of Janet's supposed levitations referenced before in my limited readings on the paranormal. Of course, the whole situation has been debunked as an attention-grabbing hoax but, for the purposes of this movie, it's all treated as gospel and it makes for a great movie. I remember the first film leaving me uneasy in a dark house when it ended but THE CONJURING 2 was way more effective at leaving me shaken. James Wan is a talented horror director and one of the few out there that can put together a strong ghost story without the reliance on shocking gore or over-used jump scare tactics. He uses camera lenses, lighting, film score, and the performances of his cast to build a sense of dread in a way that many other modern horror filmmakers wish they could. There's a little bit of questionable CG in the film when the spirit takes the form of a children's nursery rhyme named the Crooked Man but it's a minor misstep and I can forgive its cartoonish appearance because everything else works so well. The first CONJURING seems to have soaked all the hype but CONJURING 2 is the one that gets my respect. Fans of the first one won't be disappointed and, for once, I'm eager for a horror sequel and hope they continue digging through the Warrens' files with a CONJURING 3.