From Amityville to Enfield we shall go

Rating: 7/10 (13 June 2016)

I was not a huge fan of the first film, I thought it was an okay haunted house type story, but I was glad it had the success it did as it garnered an R rating and went on to have a lot of success pulling in over 100 million on a rather small by today's standards budget. My hope was that this would kind of give Hollywood executives the hint that we like our horror to be R and not the PG-13 horror light that fills the theaters these days. This one too is R, and it had a rather sizable opening weekend so I am hoping this one will do a lot of money and show it to them again, because sometimes you got to beat something into a person's head before they get it. I actually liked this one more than the first film too, as I thought it was a bit more graphic than the first film which I thought honestly could have been a PG-13 rated horror film like so many others. This one was well acted and I liked the setting to it more than the last film as it was something different. Sure, most of us know the real story is not as dark and creepy as the movie, but I really do not go into these 'based on a true story' movies thinking I am going to get an accurate retelling of the actual events. If it did that, films that were based on true events would probably put most of us to sleep.
The story starts out in Amityville and details some work the Warrens did in the old house that we have seen in its own series of films. From there we are introduced to a family in England. A mother, whose father has ditched them live in a very run down looking house. There are four children, two girls and two boys. Things begin to happen within the house with the youngest girl seemingly sleep walking and strange noises occurring. Soon, things begin moving around and an old man appears within the house wanting the family to leave. Lorraine Warren, meanwhile, keeps having visions of a demonic nun who seems to be foretelling the death of her husband. She wants to take a break from their investigations, but they are soon pulled into the Enfield haunting and must find out what is behind the girl's strange behavior and the secret of the old man in the house before it is too late!
So this film, to me, was an improvement over the first Conjuring film. From what I have read, this one was written with an R rating in mind while the first they were trying for PG-13, so this one did have more of an edge to it. I also enjoyed the opening scene in the Amityville house as I was not expecting it to be featured. Granted, I am sure most people already knew, but I kind of do not watch television or read anything about films I am going to see to be as surprised as possible. The acting was good, the atmosphere was good and it had some creepy moments. My only problem was that it did run a bit long for a horror film. I thought ten or fifteen minutes could have easily been taken out of this one and not taken away from the story.
So, yes, this film to me was pretty good. I had to see this one in theaters so that it could make as much money as possible so that maybe Hollywood would wake up and realize horror films should be rated R and that the 13 to 16 year old demographic unable to attend a horror film is not going to doom it to failure as many of them will just go with their parents anyways. Unfortunately, they probably still will not get it as another horror film coming up this year called Lights Out is rated PG-13. Looks promising, but it will most likely not have the edge this film did. This film did not kill numerous people and had no sex, it just had a creepy edge to it that made the film R. It also is a throwback to the days when they had decent actors and actresses in horror films and not just super models and buff dudes being stupid. So, I say give this one a go as not only are you end for a creepy good time, you will also be helping this film do well which will hopefully lead to more R rated horror films!