Three years ago, I went to see James Wan's The Conjuring and it sparked in me a renewed interest in the horror genre of film. Ever since seeing The Ring in theatres when I was in high school (a genuinely terrifying experience), I've had a love/hate relationship with horror movies: I was morbidly curious to watch them, but so afraid of my own fear than I rarely watched any beyond some of the older horror classics like Rosemary's Baby.
The Conjuring got me to face down my fear. The film is a masterpiece of psychological horror and suspense. It's controlled, atmospheric, extremely well-acted, and just...interesting. Whether or not you believe the "facts" behind the case of the Perron family haunting, or whether or not you see ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren as agents of the Catholic Church or masters of hoax, The Conjuring is intellectually stimulating to watch--a rare descriptor for a horror movie.
So I was a little disappointed (though not surprised) that The Conjuring 2 did not live up to the greatness of its predecessor. Don't get me wrong: The Conjuring 2 is scary as hell. Watching the film (especially on the big screen) is like riding a roller coaster for 2 hours--my heart was pounding and I was watching through my fingers. In terms of "scares per minute", The Conjuring 2 bests the original Conjuring.
But the movie itself is not as good. It's not as subtle as the first film, which allowed tension to build for long periods of time, where the sequel just gets right to the point. Additionally, it throws a whole lot of supernatural ghouls and ghosties at the wall to see what sticks, and the whole thing feels over the top, especially considering it's "based on a true story"--the well-documented case of the Enfield poltergeist.
In the film, Lorraine isn't too hot to become involved after she has a premonition of her husband's death and is convinced that if they keep ghost and demon hunting, he'll be killed. Ed persuades her that they need to help this vulnerable family.
Throughout the film, we encounter ghouls in many forms: a demonic nun haunting Lorraine, a creepy old dead guy who possesses the body of Janet Hodgson, and even a computer animated ghoul known as "the Crooked Man" from a children's song. It's all too much. If the film had stuck to the facts of the case rather than cramming ghosts into every crevice, I think it would have been much scarier and, like the first Conjuring, more interesting. The central mystery of the plot--is Janet (and, indeed, the whole Hodgson family) faking this ghost?--is enough plot to drive the movie. We don't need an entire B plot dedicated to the Warren's marriage and religious beliefs.
I want to spend a minute talking about the very interesting fact that both The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 are rated R--despite no sex or nudity, no overly gory violence, and very mild language. The films are rated R simply because they're too scary to be PG-13. Isn't that crazy!? In fact, the plots are very family-friendly and religion-friendly, especially the overly sentimental Conjuring 2 in which Ed Warren encourages the kids to think of the ghost as a "bully" and stick up for their possessed sister. If you took out most of the scares, The Conjuring 2 would basically be a PG rated film.
The R rating really says it all about the allure of The Conjuring 2--if you like to be scared out of your wits, it's a thrill ride of a movie. Many of the scares are cheap jump scares, but just as in the original film, there's also a good amount of tension-building and power in NOT showing the ghost right away. But if you're looking for a movie that is of equal film quality to the original Conjuring or other recent films in the arthouse horror genre, such as It Follows, you won't find it here.
Grade: C+
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