not bad but some silly writing and directing choices spoil the ride

Rating: 6/10 (5 September 2016)

Some spoilers. I won't go into the synopsis as you can read that elsewhere. I loved the first one and although this one isn't bad some choices in story and directing spoil what could have been a solid sequel. First off choosing this case to base a film must have seemed good on paper and the attention to detail for the time period is top notch, however a small terrace house in England just feels a little insignificant and low budget compared to the First, this is enhanced by linking it to Amityville. Not that they should have done Amityville as we have seen that done so many times before but to relate it too possibly the most infamous haunting ever then flash to a two up two down council house feels odd. What more having same daemon responsible for both makes no sense. The film has a good atmosphere with a sense of dread throughout but again where the old man and the nun daemon.are genuinely creepy they go and spoil it with the crooked man character, a creature so silly and out of place in the film more suited to Pan's labyrinth or the Muppets than this movie not to mention the dubious CGI. A little subtlety would have been better, even using a deformed version of the old man ghost would have been effective and made sense within the context of the film. The acting, script and directing are otherwise solid apart from a few unnecessary odd camera sweeps which makes it a shame that these few errors in judgement detract from which could be a worthy successor to the first film.