Chance's Corner: The Conjuring 2 Review

It's nearly October, and I've got the itch for cooler weather and to be scared senseless. The weather keeps failing me, but we do have a few horror flicks here at the Franklin County Library - classics such as The Shining and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and even contemporary films like The Babadook and The Conjuring.

The Conjuring is based off one of the case files of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens are mainly known for their research into the house in Amityville. What house? Maybe you heard of The Amityville Horror? The Conjuring takes place before the Warrens went to Amityville, and revolves around a family being terrorized by the spirit of a witch in their new farmhouse. The events are said to be true. True or not, The Conjuring is one spooky and unnerving movie.

The Conjuring 2 recently came out on DVD, and knowing how good the original movie was, I was very excited to see what comes next. This time the Warrens are investigating another famous case, the Enfield Poltergeist, which is claimed to be one of the most well-documented hauntings in history. 

Amityville House

In the prologue, the movie opens with the camera pulling back from a seemingly peaceful view, through a pane of glass, to reveal a pair of infamous quarter-moon windows. Nothing happens, but an instant chill sets in. I just knew this was going to be good... and then it wasn't.

Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) roams the haunted halls of 112 Ocean Drive, Amityville, and claims to have seen Hell (more of a personal hell, as it turns out), but all I saw was lackluster scares. Something's wrong when you can't make the house in Amityville scary.

Then the movie moves on to the Enfield case. The ball really doesn't start rolling until much later when the poltergeist starts to verbalize in his signature growl. The plot hits all the highlights of the  Enfield case - the policewoman witnessing the chair move, the possession shown on television, the photos of the girls being tossed about in their rooms, Janet bending spoons, and so on and so forth. This all actually happened, whether real or conjured up.



Is she jumping? Or is she being tossed around? 



That's what I really like about The Conjuring 2. The Warrens don't march into the house and immediately start to cleanse it. They are skeptical throughout, pointing out that the girls were probably just jumping off their beds in the photos. I also enjoy the human aspect of the story, like Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) just strumming the guitar and singing Elvis for the kids to alleviate their terror. Moments like that really set this series apart from other horror films.

What did I not like about this film? The Crooked Man, whether claymation or not, is absurd. I laughed! Every time he showed up I was completely taken out of the experience. The Demon Nun is very scary, but uh... the purpose was? There was just too many manifestations that really had nothing to do with the "true" haunting.

I think the real problem is that this film had too big of a budget - it's actually double the budget of The Conjuring. The simple scares of the original are amplified to dizzying (and unscary) heights. I've seen a crucifix turn upside down many times, maybe on not such a large scale, but still... The whole final confrontation is just overblown and uninspired (and never happened).

I was very disappointed by this film, so I guess I'm missing out on the cooler weather and being scared senseless. Tragic.

The Conjuring 2 is now available at the Franklin County Library.