Laughable direction

Rating: 4/10 (14 August 2018)

THE CONJURING 2 is a follow up to the surprise haunted house hit and another outing for psychic investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, as played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Sadly, I'm no fan of these films, finding the direction overblown and the reliance on cliches and pedestrian plotting to be completely off-putting. This unconvincing sequel transports the action to England, where the investigators are shoehorned into the famous Enfield Poltergeist case. They end up bringing their old baggage with them, so this is more about evil nuns and stupid spirits than any attempts at realism. The over-the-top fantasy hauntings involving Farmiga's character never gel with the icy chills of the poltergeist case, and it's one of those Hollywood films that manages to make all of the British accents ring hollow and false. By the end, it's devolved into yet another chased-around-by-CGI climax, just like in the INSIDIOUS trilogy, and my interest had long since waned.