“I don’t know what was worse, the demons or the people
who will prey on our willingness to believe in them.”
“The demons… are worse.”
A common question about horror from those who don’t enjoy it is why do people enjoy this? Why are haunted houses and Halloween horror nights so popular? It’s a question that can be used to decide if The Conjuring 2 is a film for you. The first Conjuring is one of those rare, superior horror films whose pleasures extend beyond genre fans. Precise camerawork and editing nestled inside solid performances by actors considered too good for the material. The sequel doesn’t reach such heights, but the cast keeps it involving and there are plenty of scares for those who like that kind of thing.
Where this falls short isn’t strictly a case of it being a sequel. By now director James Wan can craft solid scares without even trying, which is how this feels. He’s not phoning it in, but he doesn’t push himself to do anything special, with some moments that are direct lifts of things that worked in previous films. Worked then, works now. Occasionally, the film suffers from having too much money. The lighting is too slick, stamping out all that nice 70s grit. The small amount of digital effects look fine, but they do look digital and that artificial quality detracts from the “true story” feel Wan is going for. (He only nails it during the wonderful closing credits.)
Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson anchor things down nicely – though I didn’t need so much Elvis – but the first film had an ace up its sleeve with Lili Taylor, who fiercely kept her family together while the demon was working to tear her from them. That role here is played by Francis O’Conner and she’s fine, but she isn’t more than that. The kids have more of a connection with Farmiga than O’Conner, which points out the deficiency that keeps this from being more than just a scary good time.
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