Wan's touch is hard to beat. Excellent horror entertainment.

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2016)

Lorraine wanting to retire from the spiritual field and Ed Warren tired of justifying what they do travel to north London to help a family plagued by a malicious spirit.
Opening with a chilling medium session at the notorious Amityville home, where Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) has an encounter with the dead Lutz family and a demon nun, director James Wan hits the horror road running. The creepy nun from Ed's (Patrick Wilson) painting an omen of death later turns up at Ed and Lorraine's home and we're introduced to their teenage daughter. Meanwhile, a single mother raising four children are harassed by the previous deceased occupant. With a fistful of writers and the sharp editor, Wan creates a good build up, fleeting between the US and UK and although it takes its time getting Ed and Lorraine to the English house, it works giving the film scope.
The cast particularly the child actors are great and Farmiga shines. Wilson delivers another great performance as the matter of fact Ed. Incidentally as well as being a handy man, he also does a good acoustic rendition of Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love". The notable German actress Franka Potente also appears as a sceptic but gets very little screen time. Simon McBurney is solid and almost equals Timothy Spall's performance as Maurice Grosse. Like its predecessor it shares much with other haunting films but it stands on its own due to Wan's execution, he knows horror, the eeriness, atmosphere, timing of visuals and sound to get hairs standing on end effortlessly. Something which the rushed Annabelle (2014) arguably lacked in his absence as director.
With a pause for thought, like true crime murders, it gets under your skin and you can't help feel that someone is profiting from someone else's misery. Conscious aside, true or not, Wan stays close to the Enfield Haunting's beats with plenty of artistic licence to inject enough practical and CGI effects without it losing its grounded feel too much in the first three quarters.
From wall posters to wallpapers, clothes and cars the 1977 is recreated almost perfectly. There is a set up with a remote control, although I don't recall there being remotes like that in Great Britain, or at least the family surely wouldn't have been able to afford that TV, in any case, the set up is still effectively creepy with a great jump scare when the young girl encounters an old man in both a reflection and face to face. As well as a scary zoetrope toy and fire engine, there's a horrific moment where the girls young brother is tricked into thinking a ghoul is a dog wanting to go out by ringing a bell next to the door.
The UK terraced neighbour setting sets it apart, but naturally its reminiscent of the three part The Enfield Haunting (2015) and When the Lights Went Out (2012) which told the 1974 Black Monk of Pontefract story. Nevertheless, Wan to his credit recreates the Brit 70s injecting some nostalgia for the viewer, with the location, The Jam, TV clips of the day and so on. Wan packs the Conjuring 2 with energy, jumps scares and handles the emotional scenes delicately. In the closing act there's a twist as it tries to hone The Exorcist. While it may not have the grit and weight of the aforementioned, it has an entertaining mix of drama and horror to set it apart from many others. As Ed and Lorraine do battle at the end, Ed stops the young girl falling to her death as Lorraine word duels with the demon (akin to the design of 2005's The Nun/La Monja), yes there's an unnecessary wash of practical and computer imagery in the finale but it comes back to earth with an eerie text epilogue, then the couple add the zoetrope toy to their collection which is followed by the leads bursting with chesmisty dancing happily together.
With Ouija boards, spooky nuns, spectres, toys, moving furniture, ghosts, demonic voices and so on you can't go wrong. Excellent mainstream horror entertainment.