The Conjuring 2 - directed by James Wan
Screenplay: Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, James Wan & David Leslie Johnson
Something very odd happened tonight.
I went to see "The Conjuring 2" with a friend - both of us with high expectations for the film.
One of us found it almost too scary, the other not at all scary save for one - maybe two- brief moment(s).
I am fascinated by the idea that two people could have had such drastically different experiences of a film - specially one that is a sequel to a movie that both agree is one of the scariest, most effective horror flicks ever made.
I'm going to fess up straight away to being the guy that wasn't blown away by this movie.
I got an inkling that I wasn't going to be happy very early on.
The film starts with Ed and Lorraine Warren (Wilson and Farmiga) investigating arguably the most famous haunted house of all time- The Amityville house.
We are told that this is the case that made the couple famous.
TV appearances follow and along with it comes skeptics and doubters and they are shown being out and out insulted by one talkshow guest who calls them and the Lutz family who fled the house liars.
And then Lorraine has a bad vision that predicts Ed's death and she decides that they should quit.
She feels that their work is being targeted by forces that want them to stop interfering.
Ed calms her fears a little by reassuring her that the gift that she has is God-given and he will ensure that they are safe.
It is then that we meet the Hodgson family who are struggling to make ends meet in a council flat in Enfield, London after the Father leaves them for another woman.
They have a bigger problem now though it seems as the younger of the two daughters is exhibiting signs of demonic possession.
Ed and Lorraine are dispatched to London by the Catholic Church and before you can say 'Strewth, Guv'nor' we've got a sequel on our hands.
Now, there is quite a lot right with the movie up until this point.
It is building nicely with some subtly disconcerting stuff and the Amityville re-enactment is quite cleverly executed (no pun intended).
But using the Clash song 'London Calling' to herald our arrival in London of 1977 is lazy and cliched.
(and two years too early given that the track was released in 1979 but I nit-pick)
But when things really start to turn nasty with violent furniture moves and grotty old men screaming 'This is my house!!' I started to get worried.
I was not finding any of the scares even slightly scary.
It was something that didn't change for the entirety of the movie.
You may have seen the creepy nun in the trailer for this movie and even though I agree that she represents superior creature design the final version is botched in the movie.
There isn't so much as a tenth of the inventieness in the scare scenes in this film that director James Wan provided in the first one.
The bed sheet shape, the hanging body slow pullback reveal, the clapping game, the demon on the wardrobe and the entirety of the basement sequence were tense, creepy and deliciously uncomfortable viewing.
I imagine that the killer sequence this time was intended to be one in which Lorraine is trapped in a room in her own house by the nun creature but honestly- the big jump scare to this finale almost made me laugh out loud.
'Silly' I thought to myself.
Also silly is how strong London council doors are.
They apparently cannot be damaged to any significant degree with multiple blows from an axe wielded by a man who appears about 6 foot and 120 kilos.
He hammers away at the door that has conveniently slammed shut in order that characters are separated nicely.
The climax takes place in a raging lightning storm and after an earlier scene in which a hoax is revealed of course the Bee Gees song "I Started A Joke" is played.
Ugh.
Cliched and obvious.
This movie is utterly defused by heavy handedness and a reliance on a central theme that seems to exist to hide the lack of material in the event being investigated.
The idea that Ed and Lorraine are in danger and should perhaps quit is never sold very well.
Apart from anything else sequels must be considered - it is very, very unlikely that the prophecy will come true.
Also even a smidge of research reveals that 'Britain's Most Famous Haunted House' is largely regarded as a massive hoax played out by the Hodgson girls.
This shouldn't matter to the movie of course because only the most gullible of viewers won't realise that there is a huge amount of invention being used in the telling of this 'based on true' story.
But when you break down what transpires in the movie house it isn't in fact a hell of a lot.
The ending seems completely made up and didn't ring true to me at all even in the context of the movie's version of the truth.
The entire mechanism by which Ed and Lorraine are separated (that bloody armoured council door) is silly but the heartfelt conversation that the couple have at this point is even worse.
It is closely followed by a moment in which Ed is conveniently disadvantaged in the dumbest way. As soon as it happened I knew exactly how the film was going to end and my heart sank all the rest of the way down.
Fair play to the excellent Farmiga and Wilson who do about as much as you can with the dialogue that they are given.
I like both actors a whole lot and their playing of the characters is beyond reproach.
They have great chemistry and I totally believe them as a couple.
Wilson exhibits huge charm - particularly in a scene in which he sings an Elvis song.
Credit also to the production design and its huge attention to period detail.
Maybe seeing this so closely after the superb "The Witch" damns it to mediocrity unfairly.
The subtlety and smarts that ooze out of every frame of Robert Eggers film are sadly lacking in Wan's.
The Witch totally absorbed me - this film came perilously close to boring me.
But all complaints of bad dialogue and silliness aside this movie could have still worked had the scares been delivered.
For me though they were not.
I genuinely felt completely comfortable and stress free for the entire film.
I jumped once - twice if I am very, very generous.
I found the film not at all un-nerving and very obvious, predicatble and often head slappingly cliched.
And my God- the use of songs to describe exactly what is happening on screen is godawful.
Massively underwhelming.... hugely disappointing.
RATING: 68 / 100
CONCLUSION: Amazingly un-scary with far too many jarringly obvious music choices and a central thread that comes off as melodramatic and corny. Highly disappointing.
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Frances O'Connor, Franka Potente, Simon McBurney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Madison Wolfe, Lauren Esposito, Simon Delaney, Benjamin Haigh, Patrick McAuley, Bob Adrian, Robin Atkin Downes, Bonnie Aarons, Bonnie Aarons, Javier Botet
Screenplay: Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, James Wan & David Leslie Johnson
Music Score by: Joseph Bishara
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Edited by: Kirk M. Morri
Running Time: 134 minutes
Rated: R16 - Violence
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Edited by: Kirk M. Morri
Running Time: 134 minutes
Rated: R16 - Violence
I went to see "The Conjuring 2" with a friend - both of us with high expectations for the film.
One of us found it almost too scary, the other not at all scary save for one - maybe two- brief moment(s).
I am fascinated by the idea that two people could have had such drastically different experiences of a film - specially one that is a sequel to a movie that both agree is one of the scariest, most effective horror flicks ever made.
 |
| Another family in peril |
I got an inkling that I wasn't going to be happy very early on.
The film starts with Ed and Lorraine Warren (Wilson and Farmiga) investigating arguably the most famous haunted house of all time- The Amityville house.
We are told that this is the case that made the couple famous.
TV appearances follow and along with it comes skeptics and doubters and they are shown being out and out insulted by one talkshow guest who calls them and the Lutz family who fled the house liars.
And then Lorraine has a bad vision that predicts Ed's death and she decides that they should quit.
She feels that their work is being targeted by forces that want them to stop interfering.
Ed calms her fears a little by reassuring her that the gift that she has is God-given and he will ensure that they are safe.
It is then that we meet the Hodgson family who are struggling to make ends meet in a council flat in Enfield, London after the Father leaves them for another woman.
They have a bigger problem now though it seems as the younger of the two daughters is exhibiting signs of demonic possession.
Ed and Lorraine are dispatched to London by the Catholic Church and before you can say 'Strewth, Guv'nor' we've got a sequel on our hands.
 |
| Ed and Lorraine - Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga... great chemistry |
It is building nicely with some subtly disconcerting stuff and the Amityville re-enactment is quite cleverly executed (no pun intended).
But using the Clash song 'London Calling' to herald our arrival in London of 1977 is lazy and cliched.
(and two years too early given that the track was released in 1979 but I nit-pick)
But when things really start to turn nasty with violent furniture moves and grotty old men screaming 'This is my house!!' I started to get worried.
I was not finding any of the scares even slightly scary.
It was something that didn't change for the entirety of the movie.
You may have seen the creepy nun in the trailer for this movie and even though I agree that she represents superior creature design the final version is botched in the movie.
There isn't so much as a tenth of the inventieness in the scare scenes in this film that director James Wan provided in the first one.
The bed sheet shape, the hanging body slow pullback reveal, the clapping game, the demon on the wardrobe and the entirety of the basement sequence were tense, creepy and deliciously uncomfortable viewing.
 |
| Creepy Nun should be scary as all hell right?.... |
'Silly' I thought to myself.
Also silly is how strong London council doors are.
They apparently cannot be damaged to any significant degree with multiple blows from an axe wielded by a man who appears about 6 foot and 120 kilos.
He hammers away at the door that has conveniently slammed shut in order that characters are separated nicely.
The climax takes place in a raging lightning storm and after an earlier scene in which a hoax is revealed of course the Bee Gees song "I Started A Joke" is played.
Ugh.
Cliched and obvious.
This movie is utterly defused by heavy handedness and a reliance on a central theme that seems to exist to hide the lack of material in the event being investigated.
The idea that Ed and Lorraine are in danger and should perhaps quit is never sold very well.
Apart from anything else sequels must be considered - it is very, very unlikely that the prophecy will come true.
Also even a smidge of research reveals that 'Britain's Most Famous Haunted House' is largely regarded as a massive hoax played out by the Hodgson girls.
This shouldn't matter to the movie of course because only the most gullible of viewers won't realise that there is a huge amount of invention being used in the telling of this 'based on true' story.
But when you break down what transpires in the movie house it isn't in fact a hell of a lot.
The ending seems completely made up and didn't ring true to me at all even in the context of the movie's version of the truth.
The entire mechanism by which Ed and Lorraine are separated (that bloody armoured council door) is silly but the heartfelt conversation that the couple have at this point is even worse.
It is closely followed by a moment in which Ed is conveniently disadvantaged in the dumbest way. As soon as it happened I knew exactly how the film was going to end and my heart sank all the rest of the way down.
Fair play to the excellent Farmiga and Wilson who do about as much as you can with the dialogue that they are given.
I like both actors a whole lot and their playing of the characters is beyond reproach.
They have great chemistry and I totally believe them as a couple.
 |
| Production Design and period detail is excellent |
Credit also to the production design and its huge attention to period detail.
Maybe seeing this so closely after the superb "The Witch" damns it to mediocrity unfairly.
The subtlety and smarts that ooze out of every frame of Robert Eggers film are sadly lacking in Wan's.
The Witch totally absorbed me - this film came perilously close to boring me.
But all complaints of bad dialogue and silliness aside this movie could have still worked had the scares been delivered.
For me though they were not.
I genuinely felt completely comfortable and stress free for the entire film.
I jumped once - twice if I am very, very generous.
I found the film not at all un-nerving and very obvious, predicatble and often head slappingly cliched.
And my God- the use of songs to describe exactly what is happening on screen is godawful.
Massively underwhelming.... hugely disappointing.
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