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Director James Wan may have ventured into action-adventure territory with movies like Furious 7, but when the Saw creator puts out another horror movie, audiences eagerly await the nightmares that his latest film will induce. And his horror sequel, The Conjuring 2 (after 2013’s The Conjuring), definitely won’t disappoint.
The Conjuring 2 is based on another real-life case by demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). After being propelled into the spotlight by their investigation of the infamous Amityville house, Lorraine is haunted by a terrifying demon who seems determined to do her and Ed harm. She’s set on taking a break from new cases—until the church asks them to travel to London to investigate the Hodgson home, where a single mother and her four children have been under attack by the malevolent spirit of one of the home’s former residents.
Wan wastes no time in getting to the scares in his latest adventure. He opens the film on a terrifying note—during the Amityville case—setting the stage for over two hours of heart-pounding horrors to come. He then travels to London, where he gives the Hodgson family just a brief (but sufficient) introduction before commencing to wreak utter havoc on their lives.
What follows is dark and terrifying—the kind of stuff that will test your ability to hold your breath for long periods of time. The film spends most of its time in the dark, when the spirits come out to torment the family—especially 11-year-old Janet (Madison Wolfe), who seems to get the worst of it. The nighttime scenes are quiet and intense, loaded with armrest-gripping suspense—and Wan makes every dark, treacherous minute count. Instead of toying with cheap scares and fake-outs, he gives audiences plenty of real supernatural scares to scream about. It’s all so nerve-racking, in fact, that (like this poor, haunted family), you’ll be relieved to see daylight. But once you let your guard down, you’ll discover that even the daytime can be terrifying here.
Fortunately, once Ed and Lorraine become involved, the tone changes a bit. The scares are still here, but the Warrens’ investigation gives it a more scientific tone. There are also some much needed touches of humor mixed in, allowing viewers to laugh out a little bit of the pent-up tension. At times, the interviews and meetings can seem a bit dry—and, admittedly, the old man who’s haunting the family isn’t as terrifying as some of the other beings—but the occasional breaks in scares will allow viewers to catch their breath as the story builds to its chilling conclusion.
Of course, if you’re prone to nightmares (or if you have a heart condition), you’ll probably want to steer clear of The Conjuring 2. But if you love haunted houses and ghost stories and things that go bump in the night, you’ll find it wonderfully chilling.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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