The Conjuring 2

Directed by James Wan

Sequels, for the most part, are usually disappointing. Sure, there are examples where a sequel trumps the original - The Godfather Part 2, The Empire Strikes Back, and Toy Story 3 come to mind - but most can't hold a candle to their predecessor. 

When it comes to sequels to horror films, the ratio of good-to-bad is even worse. For every sequel as good as The Devil's Rejects or 28 Weeks Later there are countless abysmal examples. 

When I saw The Conjuring on DVD last fall, I was very pleasantly surprised. I hadn't expected much, mostly based on director James Wan's track record, but it was a terrific horror film. When I heard they were making a sequel, I was immediately apprehensive.

Once again, though, I was surprised. The Conjuring 2 is an excellent film and is the best horror film I've seen since, well, The Conjuring.

The plot, much like the first film, deals with a family terrorized by an evil spirit in their home.This time, the action takes place in London in the late 1970's and the family, the Hodgson's, is made up of a single mother and her four children. 

After trying to deal with the problem on her own and with the help of their neighbors and local police and paranormal experts, Peggy Hodgson (Frances O'Connor) gets set up with Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, reprising their roles from the first installment), who are the superstars of the paranormal investigation world. With their help, Peggy learns what's causing all the torment and, maybe, how to stop it.

* Farmiga, O'Connor, McBurney, and Wilson *

While this all sounds rather trite and predictable, I've been purposely vague in describing the plot and haven't touched on either of the subplots involving Lorraine Warren or the Hodgson children. The less said, the better, as I don't want to spoil anything.

The main appeal of these Conjuring films, for me, have been that they're legitimately scary, but also feature well written characters you end up caring about. The writing team of Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, James Wan, and David Johnson combined to come up with a fantastic group of new characters and continued to develop the Warrens. In most horror films, the characters are basically cardboard cutouts, completely devoid of any real personality and are incapable of generating any sort of emotion from the viewer. They exist purely as an object to advance the plot and to - depending on the type of horror movie - get hacked apart, terrorized, haunted, or possessed. The writers made sure to highlight each and every character, even the smaller roles.

The Conjuring 2 takes its time setting the mood and gives us a chance to get to know Peggy and her children - Margaret, Janet, Johnny, and Billy - a little bit before the spookiness kicks into high gear. This extra time spent with the characters pays dividends down the road, because you're able to relate to them and care for them. You get to know them and want them all to be safe, which is an emotion lacking in a lot of horror films. Because of this extra effort, The Conjuring 2 is a bit longer than most examples from the genre - it clocks in at 134 minutes - but it was so much better because of it. The time flew by for me, as well.

In the restroom after the movie ended, I overheard two guys talking and their conversation amused me:

Guy #1: "It was kinda long. There were too many parts where nothing scary happened."

Guy #2: "Yeah, I don't think horror movies should be longer than 90 minutes. They just get boring."

I didn't think it was a great idea to get into a debate with two strangers while standing at the urinals, so I let these comments slide, but it really made me sad as a film lover that all this wonderful character development and atmosphere building could get swept aside so easily. 

* O'Connor and the two Hodgson girls - Madison Wolfe and Lauren Esposito - having a rough night *

I don't mean to imply that The Conjuring 2 isn't a scary film, just that it takes its time. Straight out of the gate, there's a prologue of sorts that is very unsettling and then the film launches into the main story at the Hodgson home, which produces scares from a variety of sources - including jump scares, tension, and a general creepy atmosphere. I've written in the past about my disdain of cheap jump scares, and if that's all The Conjuring 2 had to offer, it wouldn't be a film for me. Thankfully, none of the moments that made me jump - and there were at least three or four which elicited an involuntary physical reaction - were cheap or thoughtless. They were almost all born from the tension the writers created and the wonderful set and production design. In addition to the fantastically done jump scares, the film is also scary thanks to the generally creepy atmosphere and score. Everything combines for a thoroughly frightening film.

Writing a script basically comes down to three major components - the plot, the characters, and the dialogue. The writing team here does a great job with 2/3 of these components, but their one area of weakness is plotting. There's nothing very original, plot-wise, with The Conjuring 2 and the film suffers from some very basic plot contrivances. Now, these issues didn't effect my enjoyment of the film much while watching it - it's ridiculously easy to get swept up in the story - but it is something that becomes noticeable when thinking about it afterwards and holds The Conjuring 2 back from reaching the level of a "great" film.

With all this talk in regards to characters, it shouldn't be surprising the performers inhabiting those characters are excellent, as well. Even a superbly written character can be sunk by a shoddy performance, but thankfully that's not the case here.

Patrick Wilson has been an actor I've greatly admired for quite a long time - going back to 2003's HBO mini-series Angels in America - and he does some of his best work as Ed Warren. Wilson conveys a depth and breadth of character not often found in horror movies. Ed is a loving and supportive husband, who understands that it's his wife with the real "gift", but without him, she'd be unable to take advantage of it. When things get rough, Wilson is more than up to the task and is capable of delivering an action hero type performance when needed.

* The redecorating hasn't helped subdue the evil spirit, but Wilson likes it anyhow *

My favorite moment of the film, though, and one that keeps coming back to me is when Ed sits down to cheer up the Hodgson family with a song. He picks up a guitar and launches into a rendition of the Elvis classic Can't Help Falling in Love. Ed starts out funny - doing an Elvis impersonation - but soon settles into a beautiful performance. It comes at a perfect point in the film - after so much nastiness and heartache, but with even more to come, you know - and was an emotional moment not just for the characters, but for me, as well. It actually brought tears to my eyes, a reaction I never expected going into the movie. On a side note, Wilson is a much better singer than I ever expected, too!

As Lorraine Warren, Vera Farmiga has some of the best moments in The Conjuring 2. Her "gift" of psychic premonitions forces her to confront an evil demon - taking the form of a nun, just to mock her religious beliefs - and to see her beloved husband die in a most gruesome way, but Lorraine soldiers on, despite her initial protests. She knows the Hodgson family needs her help and can't stand to let innocent people suffer, even if it means further torment and possible death for her and her husband. Farmiga, like Wilson, has long been a welcome sight in films, and almost always delivers a fine performance. She does it again in The Conjuring 2, conveying Lorraine's fear and sympathy in equal measure, often times just through a look from her extremely expressive eyes. 

* Farmiga with the evil nun/demon lurking behind her *

The Hodgson family is even more important to the story than the Warrens are, so the casting and performances were critical, if the film was going to work. With weak performances, the characters would suffer and the audience might not care one way or the other what happens to them. O'Connor was a great choice for the role of Peggy - she hits all the right notes and was completely believable as a scared, angry, and vengeful mother caught up in this nightmare of a situation.

Madison Wolfe has the largest child role as Janet and doesn't disappoint, turning in a far ranging performance. She is equally believable as a regular kid as she is as a girl possessed by an evil spirit, and everything in between. A lot of the early creepy moments are seen from Janet's point of view and a lesser actress could have spoiled the tension and suspense. Wolfe plays them very well and doesn't go over the top, like a lot of young actors have a tendency to do. 

The other three Hodgson children are less developed as characters, but they are still well acted by Lauren Esposito, Patrick McAuley, and Benjamin Haigh. With this many young actors in the cast, you'd think at least one would be distracting or annoying, but that wasn't the case. Plus, they all seemed to have great chemistry with each other and O'Connor and Wolfe. The Hodgson's seemed like a real family to me and I was left wondering if the actors had a lot of rehearsal time to get to know each other. 

* Wolfe, having a very bad night *

I'm sure a lot of the credit for these good performances should go to the writing staff, who created well balanced characters, and to director James Wan, who evidently gave the actors the time and space needed to capture the performances. Like I said earlier, I'm no fan of Wan's work, for the most part. The Conjuring was the first film of his I even remotely liked - after the failure of Saw (an interesting idea made into a terrible film), the embarrassment of Dead Silence (which I couldn't even finish), and the disappointment of Insidious (a creepy looking movie with a good cast, but another bad result). His failure with Saw can be traced back to some shoddy writing and the lack of time/budget to create the type of film he was going for. With those elements in place, he's obviously capable of making better movies. I can't say that Wan has won me over, and I'm certainly not in the position to actively anticipate any film just because he's directing it, but he's moving in the right direction, at least.

My main complaint with the film is probably the climatic battle with the demon, which has a tremendous amount of fantastic buildup, but fizzles out rather quickly. I'm not sure what could have been done differently, but I would have liked more. More of a confrontation, more suspense, more action. The ending isn't bad, but it was a rather average way to end an otherwise excellent movie. 

The Conjuring 2 was the first horror film I've seen in the theater in almost five years - since the disappointing Paranormal Activity 3 - and it'll probably be a while until I see another one there. Most entries in the genre simply aren't worth the money (tickets, popcorn, sodas) or energy (finding a babysitter, driving there, standing in line) it takes to have a night out at the cinema. 

Of course, if The Conjuring 3 gets made - which, given the financial success of both films, seems very likely - I'll be there, sitting in the darkened theater, waiting to be scared again.