Nothing here for seasoned horror fans

Rating: 5/10 (13 July 2016)

I re-watched the first one on Friday night and enjoyed it a lot more than the first time I watched it. Having seen nearly all of the James Wan Horror films (Insidious, Annabelle, Saw) you have to appreciate that The Conjuring 1 & 2 are the best of these types of 'horror' film.
I say 'horror' because this isn't true horror. There is nothing in any of these films that any long time horror fan hasn't seen many times before. James Wan seems to have an approach where instead of trying to avoid the clichés and tropes of modern day horror, he just throws EVERY conceivable 'trick' into a blender and hopes for the best. The first few scares of Conjuring 2 fell completely flat with me. Just when I was beginning to lose all hope of seeing anything remotely scary, they did just about start to improve.
One of the things that really grated me with the first film, was the horribly out of tone use of 'Time of the season' by The Zombies and a completely pointless long shot. An odd tone shift that doesn't suit anything before or after it in the film. The sequel suffers from similar unwarranted tone changes. Patrick Wilson pulling out his guitar to give a rendition of an Elvis song is this films 'Time of the season'. It just doesn't work. In fairness though, this is an attempt at character development, it doesn't work, but at least they tried.
Another major gripe is that all of the Enfield based English characters sound like they've been taught diction by Don Cheadle in Oceans 11. Or perhaps Wan told them to base their accents on that little lad from Bedknobs & Broomsticks? Either way it's off putting and distracting.
Watching a James Wan produced/directed horror film is the cinematic equivalent of accompanying a toddler through the haunted house at the local fair; The loud noisy things that keep jumping out are very effective at scaring the younger ones, but only because it's all new to them.