‘It’s scary, it’s Conjuring’ a predominant notion which has been associated with the Conjuring franchise as the cases of Ed and Lorraine have been always looked forward to with great anticipation and fear. However, even though the case or the calamity is scary, the creation of the inhuman character as it is called or in simple language the spirit has a thin margin to fall upon between being scary or amusingly artificial. This movie dwindles on both sides of the margin!
The Conjuring 2 follows another interesting mystery of the cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively, the paranormal investigators, trying to help a family victimised by an evil spirit. A loving family of a single mother Peggy Hodgson played by Frances O’Connor and her four kids experience the presence of an evil spirit in their house that they have recently moved into.
Just like the plot of The Conjuring of 2013, the kids clutched by the bond of happiness are suddenly cluttered by increasing tension and fear due to various unusual activities in their house. It is said that ‘the soft target always fall prey’ so the second daughter Janet Hodgson played by Madison Wolfe is the one who gets possessed at different instances.
‘Possession can be menacing’ and director James Wan knows the tricks that make you cringe in your seats as he has thoroughly triggered various sequences where Janet is possessed. More than this, the sudden appearance of something and instigation of music may make you either scream a bit or at least retreat to your seat. But, the whole movie has a number of these sudden instances and so it kind of becomes repetitive or rather can be easily anticipated.
The movie misses out on few spectacular horrifying scenes like the Clap, the tree and exorcism of Carolyn which sent a chill down the spine of viewers in the first movie. The Conjuring 2 on the other hand has few sinister scenes when Janet talks in a different voices for the first time, when she is caught up in a weird position amidst the pipes, tries to hurt her little brother with a knife and finally is seen floating in the air towards the end. Fortunately, this film distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures does not have any reference to the haunted Annabelle doll from Warrens’ previous case.
The end could have been better. The exorcism could have been breathtaking and the last sequence could have been the paramount display to raise fear and anxiety among the viewers at another tangent altogether. The exorcism ends at a rapid pace and the movie takes a happy loving turn quite soon.
The mystery and revelation keeps you hooked on as Lorraine’s emotional dilemma, Peggy’s strength and Janet’s helplessness draws you into the story to expect a resolution of the situation. The story written by Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, Wan and David Leslie Johnson is a piece of art that you will connect to quite easily and feel one with the traumatising situation as well. Music has played a huge role to cause panic and trigger the sudden occurrence of various activities.
Visually the movie is not that appealing as the makeup and effects are mediocre. The breaking of glass, the house, the turning of cross are visually enthralling so visual effects studios Soho VFX and Hydralux have done a decent job to enhance the fear.
The actual demon shown in the form a Nun neither seems scary now does it suit the level of kind of terror caused by Conjuring movies. The movie could have been even more alarming without the presence of this Nun. But all said and done, a horror movie has its basic purpose of scaring audiences and The Conjuring 2 has achieved the purpose though not as remarkably as the first movie.
