It overcomes its poor plot with new, effective scares.

Rating: 7/10 (11 June 2016)

As I walked out of my showing of 'The Conjuring 2' I overheard a family talking amongst themselves. The youngest boy said that the film itself wasn't what scarred him but the noises did. This made me think a lot about what many people deem as horror. It's strange that, to many people, fear is not measured by how it makes them feel but by how far their butts left their seat. For me this is not effective horror. When I see a horror film I want to be affected by it. I want to feel that sense of dread that churns deep in your stomach and makes you sweat through your clothes. Unlike many people that saw this film with me, I thought this film did just that.
It's sad that people are writing off this films effectiveness based on the fact that there weren't many jump scares. I mean, there were obviously some in there but the majority of the film is atmosphere. The atmosphere that this film builds really gives off a sinister vibe. As I watched, an eerie feeling washed over me. The sense that this is not something we are suppose to be watching.
And this feeling continued for the films two hour run time. The more sinister the plot gets the more you just feel a sense of helplessness. This sense of dread helped the film be more than just any other horror movie. With this feeling surrounding the film the scares hit hard. It knows that jump scares are far better than false scares and it uses it's atmosphere to really make you lose it.
If anything jumps you in the film it is the ghost or something the ghost does. It's never like a bird flying around or a person grabbing someones shoulder. Instead the film actually uses the ghost to scare you. What I loved about this movie is how many new, different scares where in it. It's clear that James Wan was having a blast making this movie and he experimented with a lot of new things.
Some fall flat but most are extremely cool and effective. Not only was he experimenting with new scares but new camera movements as well. Which all turned out super impressive. There's a great birds eye view shot of people running down a alley that made my jaw drop. That's what separates this film from so many others.
The cast and crew seemed like they were having way to much fun with it. It gave the film energy that many don't have. This helped 'The Conjuring 2' elevate itself over a relatively bland story. A story that we have all seen a million times over. Where someone gets haunted, the family gets involved, than things get really bad so they call experts in to cleanse the house.
The fact that this isn't anything new or different really does hurt the film. It makes a lot of the scares predictable and the plot points less sharp. Not only that but when your movie runs for more than two hours with a story like this it can get a bit dry near the end. Especially when the previous hour and a half was a none stop scare fest.
It's at that point where I began to realize that not a single character had any personality what so ever. All anyone was, was a plot device for the script. A means of forwarding the story to the next scene. They would do something that a normal human probably wouldn't do, get freaked out and than it was on to the next scene.
While 'The Conjuring 2' may not be as good as the first film it is still a solid horror flick. It knows what it is and doesn't bother with the extraneous "character building" that many others do during the opening half hour. While it certainly would've made the film better to have characters we cared about, not pretending like they were doing this helped get to what we paid for. Getting the pants scared off of us. And this film does that in a fresh, new, and very effective way. If you're a horror fan this one should not be missed. Just make sure to manage your expectations.