Wednesday Review: The Conjuring 2

I’ve honestly never gotten James Wan’s popularity. I certainly don’t think he’s bad, but I feel as if he simply uses standard horror cliches somewhat better than more traditionally awful directors. Chris Stuckman has singled Wan out specifically for his tendency to makethe audience jump from loud noises only when those noises are causedby things the audience is actually supposed to be afraid of, as if this is some great innovation. He’s certainly never made anything as good as The Witch or It Follows, which makes me suspect that either audiences not familiar with such films are grading on a curve, or audiences prefer Wan’s easier-to-digest films over more challenging story-telling.

This isn’t helped by the fact that I’m not a huge fan of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Honestly, both in the film and in real-life, I find them to be self-righteous bores who believe that God personally chose them to fight the forces of evil. My dislike may be fueled by the fact that I identify as pagan, and thus find Catholicism in general to be somewhat stuck-up, but cards on the table, there you go.

That said, however, I do agree with critics who are saying that The Conjuring 2 is substantially better than the first film. For most of this movie the family being haunted are the primary characters, and Ed and Lorraine Warren don’t even come to England to investigate the haunting until an hour into the story (in real life they were barely involved in this case). I find the family to be far more relatable, and many of the supernatural events actually come across as scary.

The film also benefits from a more nuanced view of those investigating the haunting. While it’s pretty clear from the start there is something going on, the skeptics are treated with a great deal of respect, and many of their concerns about the case are acknowledged as valid. We never deal with anyone who is dead set on proving their view in the face of evidence.

This movie does, however, share one common problem with it’s predecessor: the climax. This is a problem that embodies why James Wan is not the best choice for Haunted House films. Wan is a director who tells complete stories. However, hauntings are scary precisely because of how much information we don’t have. As with the last movie, the film eventually turns into an action thriller, with the Warrens explaining everything that’s going on, and dispatching the evil forces. In real life the Enfield Poltergeist is famous because of just how mysterious and controversial the events are, so why would we want to know in such pain-staking detail what was happening?

That said, the film is better than Annabelle. I’d probably be giving it better marks if it hadn’t already gotten it’s happy ending from Rotten Tomatoes. It’s not bad, I like the non-Warren characters, and the first two acts are unsettling. The atmosphere is creepy, and the scares are done well. You could do a lot worse with your weekend viewings.