Chilling and thrilling! A worthy sequel!

Rating: 8/10 (9 June 2016)

James Wan seems to be the only consistent horror director working today, cranking out hit after hit, with his explosive start helming the first Saw film. His follow up to The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2 is a worthy sequel, and while the first installment of the haunted adventures of the Warrens' shines brighter than this follow up, The Conjuring 2 still thrills and chills with the help of well placed jump scares, a tone of absolute dread, and beautiful camera work.
It's been seven years since Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) and her husband, Ed (Patrick Wilson), helped The Perron family with their haunted Rhode Island house. When Lorraine has a premonition of a terrifying demonic force threatening to kill Ed, she decides they cannot investigate anymore to keep him safe. Across the pond in Enfield, England, the Hodgson family is being terrorized by the angry spirit of an old man named Bill (Bob Adrian). The eleven-year-old Janet (Madison Wolfe) seems to be the focus of all the hubbub and the primary victim of Bill's rage. When the police come by one night, after a particularly scary attack, and witness supernatural activity themselves, the Hodgon's soon find themselves in the middle of a media firestorm about their haunted home. The church sends Ed and Lorraine to England to confirm the authenticity of the case despite Lorraine's hesitance and worries about Ed's safety.
Wilson and Farmiga are still as charming as ever playing the real-life Warrens, who spent decades investigating the supernatural. They are a perfect pair of love, faith, and empathy. Their capacity for goodwill is rooted in their unwavering Christian faith- something that is not popular or looked upon as a legitimate motivation for character actions these days. The pair are written so likable that their faith cannot simply be laughed away. They use it as their foundation in all that they do, in their unwavering sense of charity in helping this family in need, and also as a fierce weapon against evil. Even the most hardened atheist will find it difficult to deny how bad ass Lorraine is as she holds up her Bible or the potent power of Ed's crucifix around his neck when they wield them in defense against the nasty spirit tormenting the Hodgsons. Madison Wolfe, who plays Janet, the poor girl being hit with the most abuse, is a wonderful actress. You feel her exhaustion and her utter loss of hope as the movie continues on. Wolfe exhibits the talent of someone much older than herself. You empathize with her highs and her lows- something usually difficult for such a young actor to achieve.
The camera work is almost another character in The Conjuring 2. Simple zooms, upside down shots, and pans induce the fear in the audience, who witness some horrors that the characters do not. In one sequence the youngest Hodgson boy, Billy (Benjamin Haigh), has a blanket tent set up at the end of a dark hallway. When one of his toys rolls by itself out from the darkness, he jumps into bed in fear while the camera focuses on the tent, giving the audience a good forty-five seconds of fear of what is inside the dark tent and waiting for whatever it may be to jump out. With this tactic, Wan includes the audience in the narrative, giving each person their own personal journey with this haunting.
While it is indeed a well made and effective film in it's own right, The Conjuring 2 is more scattered plot-wise than the tightly scripted The Conjuring. It spreads itself a little too thin as it tries to include slight subplots of some of the real life people who were present during the Enfield Hauntings, including Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney), who was an investigator and the most constant and dedicated supporter for the Hodgson's during their plight. He is an important figure in the actual real-life story, but this movie is about the Warrens and the Hodgens, and any departure from them feels like an overkill of information.
James Wan is not only a great director of horror but also in general. Hopefully he is just getting started with The Conjuring series. Based on the quality thus far of the first two films, you can potentially expect to be treated and frightened by a whole franchise based on the hundreds of the Warrens real-life haunted adventures.