Better Than the Original

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2020)

This film really works hard to not be a carbon copy of the original film, and it pulls it off well. It does a fantastic job at balancing characters and character development alongside the scares and isn't afraid to take a moment or two to show us some true humanity in between bone-chilling scenes.
Perhaps it was after Annabelle came out that Warner Bros. decided to expand the concept into an entire "universe," because this film, while being a film that can be enjoyed on its own, does a fantastic job of setting the stage for some of the films that would come in the future.
Watching the films in chronological order, this one definitely feels like it's setting up the future instalments more than any of the others. The stakes are higher, the suspense is stronger and the Warrens are ready to rise to the challenge.
Really the only downfall of this film is its hideous use of effects at certain times. Some of these scenes look like they were shot right at the end when the budget was really starting to dry up and the producers needed to go as cheap as possible. They were distracting and took me out of the film but, in general, I think they handled the material pretty well.
Of course, there's undoubtedly a lot of changes from the actual events as they occurred, either for scares or drama (as there undoubtedly were multiple changes made in the translation from reality to the story the Warrens would tell everybody about what happened... if, in fact, anything actually happened), but the way the story was told and the details didn't take away from the film in general.
James Wan knows what he's doing and I hope to see him working on more films in this universe in the future.