THE CONJURING 2 (2016)

Studio:       New Line Cinema
Director:    James Wan
Writer:       Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, James Wan, David Johnson
Producer:  Peter Safran, Rob Cowan, James Wan
Stars:     Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Frances O’Connor, Madison Wolfe, Simon McBurney, Franka Potente, Simon Delaney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Lauren Esposito, Benjamin Haigh, Patrick McAuley, Sterling Jerins

Review Score:

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Summary:

Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate a poltergeist terrorizing a single mother and her four children in Enfield, England.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Amityville, New York – 1976 – Two months after the Lutz Family fled, Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate The Amityville Horror house. Lorraine experiences a disturbing vision during which she confronts an inhuman spirit dressed as a Catholic nun.

Hodgson Residence – Enfield, England – 1977 – A poltergeist begins haunting single mother Peggy Hodgson and her four children Johnny, Billy, Margaret, and Janet. Instances of paranormal activity include Janet becoming possessed and speaking in another person’s voice, as well as furniture and various items moving on their own. Several instances center on an old chair in a corner of the living room.

In Connecticut, Lorraine finds her husband inexplicably painting a portrait of the nun from her Amityville vision. Fearing that Ed’s life may be in danger, Lorraine insists that they no longer accept any new cases involving supernatural phenomenon.

Janet and Margaret are attacked by the unseen entity in their bedroom. Janet receives a wound from a bite whose two front teeth are missing.

Peggy and her children flee across the street to the home of friends Vic and Peggy Nottingham. Constables Heeps and Peterson briefly investigate the Hodgson home and corroborate claims of paranormal activity, but express that there is nothing the police can do. Heeps tells Peggy Hodgson that she will contact a priest friend on the family’s behalf.

While at home with her daughter Judy, Lorraine has another chilling vision of the demonic nun, during which she scrawls in her bible while performing automatic writing. In this vision, Lorraine has a premonition of Ed being impaled to death.

Kent Allen from the TV show “Wide Angle” comes to the Hodgson home and gets their story out to the public. Paranormal researcher Maurice Grosse and skeptical psychologist Anita Gregory begin their own investigations into the haunting.

While being interviewed, the entity possessing Janet identifies itself as 72-year-old Bill Wilkins. Bill claims that he died in the chair in the corner and says that he wants to hear the Hodgsons scream.

The Hodgsons begin staying at the Nottingham residence across the street. However, the poltergeist follows them there as Billy’s toy zoetrope of The Crooked Man comes to life through the Nottingham’s dog Baron. Paranormal activity continues and Janet becomes possessed again.

A priest asks the Warrens to travel to England and investigate the Enfield case on the church’s behalf. Lorraine is reluctant, revealing her encounter at Amityville and premonition of Ed’s death to her husband, but Ed persuades her that they need to help the Hodgson family.

Ed examines the Hodgson house with Peggy and Maurice while Lorraine bonds with Janet. Ed conducts a tape-recorded interview with Janet during which she speaks as Bill.

Ed and Lorraine sleep in the house. During the night, Janet teleports through the floor and ends up trapped inside her locked bedroom where she is attacked by the entity. Afterward, the investigation into the haunting intensifies.

While helping Peggy deal with a washing machine in the flooded basement, the entity briefly attacks. Peggy receives a bite wound similar to Janet’s with the missing front teeth. In the water, Ed recovers a mouth retainer with two front teeth in it.

Paranormal activity continues. Anita Gregory shows the investigators footage of Janet faking a supernatural experience by bending utensils and smashing dishware on her own. The investigators become suspicious that the Enfield poltergeist may be at least partly a hoax. Ed and Lorraine pack up to go home. Janet tells her siblings that Bill told her to fake the incident so that everyone would leave, otherwise he would kill them.

On the train out of town, a clue leads Ed to play two Janet/Bill tape recordings at the same time. The full message says, “help me, it won’t let me go.” Lorraine experiences a vision of Bill dying in his chair and realizes that Bill was enslaved by an inhuman spirit to weaken Janet’s will and break Lorraine’s faith. The Warrens rush back to Enfield to save Janet.

Janet becomes possessed again. Janet levitates her sister before locking the rest of the family out of the house.

Ed makes it inside the house while Lorraine and Vic Nottingham are trapped outside. Ed apologizes through the wall to his wife for breaking his promise to avoid danger, but insists on rescuing Janet.

A valve dislodges from a pipe, hitting Ed and blurring his vision. Ed encounters a manifestation of the Crooked Man on his way to Janet’s bedroom. Ed grabs Janet as she jumps from a window towards a split tree trunk in the ground below.

Lorraine realizes that if she can figure out the spirit’s name, she can have dominion over it. Lorraine remembers scrawling in her bible during her vision in Connecticut and discovers that she spelled the name “Valek.”

Vic uses an ax on the door outside, allowing Lorraine to get inside the house. Lorraine confronts Valek by name and condemns the spirit back to Hell. Lorraine pulls Ed back from the window as he rescues Janet.

As the Hodgsons recover in the aftermath, Ed gifts his crucifix pendant to Janet. Back home in Connecticut, Ed adds Billy’s Crooked Man zoetrope to the Warren occult museum. He and Lorraine dance to Elvis. It is revealed that in 2003, Peggy Hodgson died in the same chair as Bill Wilkins.

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Review:

“The Conjuring 2” makes two truths plainly evident.  First, filmmaker James Wan is as crucial of a creator in the evolution of horror entertainment as John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Stephen King, or any other genre giant a person can name.  Second, if “The Conjuring 2” doesn’t put color in your shorts, it might be impossible for any horror movie to get inside your fear center.

“The Conjuring 2” opens in Amityville.  While cheapo indies abuse the town’s name and studios stammer over how to handle the franchise proper, Wan packs more frightful atmosphere into this single scene than the last six Amityville features combined.

It’s been two months since the Lutzes fled the notoriously haunted home.  Now paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are on site for a séance to see if supposedly supernatural claims are horror or hoax.

Shocked into a psychic trance, Lorraine relives the DeFeo Family murders from the killer’s eyes.  Brutally bloody and deeply disturbing, Lorraine’s sensory nightmare concludes in a chilling confrontation with an evil entity dressed as a demonic nun.  The experience troubles Lorraine so deeply that when she returns to reality, she forces Ed to vow that they will refuse any new cases over fear for their sanity as well as their lives.

That’s a vow soon broken.  Over in England, 11-year-old Janet Hodgson’s nightly bouts of sleepwalking take a sinister turn when she begins speaking in the throaty voice of Bill, a 72-year-old man who claims to have died in the home.  Bill wants the house back.  And he wants to hear the Hodgsons scream.  With Janet becoming possessed, toys turning into living terrors, and furniture flying throughout the home, Ed and Lorraine may be the family’s only hope for banishing the devilish poltergeist and saving young Janet’s life.

Straight from the gate, the film bolts at a full sprint, putting the audience right into the thick of things and on the same page with everyone involved.  Once paranormal activity begins, the film’s foot stays committed to pressing down on the gas.

No time is expended on the usual “I don’t believe you” exposition that slows down the starts of many supernatural haunters.  Mama Hodgson is barely into her raised-voice speech about how her two panicked daughters need to knock off the nonsense when a dresser bangs across the room, prompting everyone to flee immediately.  When cops show up for a look-see, instead of “nothing to see here” skepticism and a quick dismissal, the constables are in the Hodgson home for a mere minute when a kitchen chair floats across the floor.

There are no useless scenes.  “The Conjuring 2” uses every available moment to build either characters and story, or suspense and scares.

Those scares are crafted so carefully and executed so masterfully, they stand among the most effective ever committed to screen.  A certain sequence involving a shadow possessing an eerie painting is as memorable of a horror movie moment as Regan’s head doing a 360-degree spin or the silhouette stalking Janet Leigh in her motel shower.  It is that good.

Every time the movie goes conspicuously quiet, you immediately tense up with anxious anticipation.  Every shadowed corner in the background is a threat.  Every open window is an opportunity for danger.  Every sight, every sound, every part of the frame invites potential terror.  There is always something to see, a reason to stay alert, a reason to be afraid of what comes next, and you can practically picture James Wan smiling with delight at knowing he has your imagination right where he wants it.

It isn’t just jump scares.  Even when the camera slowly zooms while floor creaks grow louder, open eyes can clearly see what comes next and it is still terrifying.  The camera is so confident in its ability that it can reveal the blueprint of what it is planning and the tactic works every time.

Wan’s horror movies consistently stoke a distinct sense of helpless unease with a unique style unlike any other filmmaker.  “The Conjuring 2” is his pinnacle achievement in weaving a fully immersive drape of dread that smothers every environment, leaving the viewer with no option other than to commit trust completely to his vision.

Even though every minute provides purpose, adrenaline is front-loaded.  Supernatural suspense films usually ramp up, but “The Conjuring 2” ramps down with a pause in the pace prior to the climax.  The duration runs over two hours, which is on the long side for a fright film where an audience can run out of energy before the movie does.  That length is felt not in a check your watch with impatience kind of way, but as a strength-sapping experience asking the audience to invest and engage so heavily.

Trimming act three would accentuate action, though essential character development lulls are as charming as the poltergeist encounters are nerve-wracking.  Schmaltz is applied with thick strokes at the ending, but Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga make the Warrens’ love story so affectionately touching through their chemistry that artificial emotion can be forgiven.

The demonic nun reminds a little too much of Marilyn Manson and inclusions like Hodgson brother Johnny don’t pull their share of the weight.  Also, the theme of a frazzled mother struggling with too many kids in her humble home doesn’t stray far from the plot of the first film.  Maybe it shouldn’t.  At this point, criticism is meandering into quibbles rather than legitimate issues having meaningful impact on the movie.

“The Conjuring 2” is proof positive that a studio horror film can be commercial for mass appeal while still satisfying even the most diehard genre movie fan.  Characters worth caring about, a story with strong suspense, and supernatural scares imprinted in the mind’s eye.  I can’t think of anything else that someone could possibly want from a horror film that “The Conjuring 2” doesn’t have.

Review Score:  90

Click here for Culture Crypt's review of "The Conjuring."

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