Written by Chad Hayes And Carey W. Hayes And James Wan And David Leslie Johnson
Directed by James Wan
Lorraine Warren: "After everything we've seen, there isn't much that rattles either of us anymore. But this one... this one still haunts me."
Following the events of the first movie and spin off movie, Annabelle, it was time to venture into the first sequel of this franchise. This meantt another case with husband and wife demonologist team, Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga).
Back in the 1970s, it wasn't just the US having their share of paranormal cases but even the UK had an infamous one with the Enfield Haunting. It was time for the Warrens to take a trip overseas for this particular case.
The case focused on a single mother, Peggy Hodgson (Frances O'Connor) and her family, Janet (Madison Wolfe), Margaret (Lauren Esposito), Billy (Benjamin Haigh) and Johnny (Patrick McAuley). Let's just say kids really shouldn't be messing with ouija boards.
It was Janet and Margaret playing with one that suddenly saw their home being terrorised by the ghost of Bill Wilkins (Bob Adkins), who communicated through Janet and certainly made the effort to unnerve Ed during their initial encounter in the house.
However, it wasn't just one ghost. No, there was also the Crooked Man (Javier Batet) terrorising the house and even Ed and Lorraine needed the helps of others such as Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney) and Anita Gregory (Franka Potente) in saving the Hodgson family.
Then there was another spin off to help set up. Lorraine was having visions of a demonic nun named Valak (Bonnie Aarons) and there's a battle between the pair in order to save Ed. Personally, I found this set up a little clumsy and distracting from the main plot itself.
- The last scene contained the Annabelle doll, a haunted "Crooked Man" zoetrope and one of the Perrons music boxes.
- There's some nice supporting performances from Maria Doyle Kennedy and Simon Delaney as a couple who were friends with Peggy and her family.
- Standout music: Elvis's I Can't Help Falling In Love With You and The Clash's London Calling.
- Chronology: The movie started with the Lutz family in Amityville in 1976 before moving to the Enfield Haunting in 1977. Christmas played a part here too.
The Conjuring 2 for the most part did make for a good sequel. I liked the London setting, the jump scares were still good but it did feel like they could've weaved the Valak story a lot better into the movie or just hinted at it in a post credit scene instead.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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