Review of The Conjuring 2 (2016) by Dave C — 10 Oct 2016
A fantastic return to the genre of the horror film with this sequel to the second highest grossing horror film of all time (The Exorcist is first).
It's longer than the first, which means it's also slightly more layered. Wan brings a deft hand to moving us between the two interweaving stories, the Hodgson family who represent the heart of the mystery, and that of the Warren's who have been solicited out of retirement to see if they can help with the mystery.
The mystery of-course surrounds the documented story of the true Hodgson families brush with the spirits that seem to haunt their house beyond their control. The tension builds as the outside sources attempt to rationalize the spirits as an elaborate hoax (or something else along those lines), and the attempt to bring in the Warren's to really help determine this.
Every great horror story begins with these sorts of questions that travel the line between faith and doubt. As they say, the monsters that we feel might be there are much scarier than the ones that we see in all their glory, and this is where Wan does his best work. He really humanizes the film, even as he gives great respect to the material itself. There is a sense in which the desire is to really dive underneath the experience of the true to life characters themselves. For the Warren's this is a story of self-discovery, as much as it is about their own journey of faith. For the Hodgson's it is a story of desperation. This desperation exists only if we are willing to hear their actual story, and The Conjuring bridges the gap between entertainment and intention to this end.
As for the pacing of the film itself, the scares are well crafted and well placed, and the sequences draw up the perfect amount of dread. It leaves us wondering and questioning, and then it throws our wonder and our questions for a loop, which is what makes the experience of The Conjuring so worthwhile. The first was one of my favorites of the genre. This lives up to it for sure.
This review of The Conjuring 2 (2016) was written by Dave C on 10 Oct 2016.
The Conjuring 2 has generally received positive reviews.
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