Review of The Conjuring 2 (2016) by Filipeneto — 14 Mar 2021

I loved the first movie and honestly had good expectations for this sequel. I don't know if that was what clouded my judgment or not, but the fact is that I was a little disappointed: I was expecting something more that I'm not sure what could be, but that never come. However, I admit that the problem may be more in myself than in the film.

The film begins by taking a very brief approach to the Amityville case, which is already quite retold in cinema, as we know. Starting from these initial scenes, we accompany the Warrens, a famous couple of psychic investigators, to the United Kingdom, to investigate the famous Enfield haunting, which has also been previously dramatized. And here begin my questions and doubts: wouldn't it have been better to leave Amityville aside and think of another way to start the film? It doesn't seem that difficult, and it would remove from the film the strange feeling that it wanted to address two supernatural cases at once. And one more thing: after some reading, I realized that the Warrens' has had a very minor participation in the investigation of the Enfield case (which almost everyone today considers to be a forgery). Wouldn't it have been more interesting to address a case that the Warrens had really studied, and that was perhaps not as famous and as clearly false as Enfield's?

Overall, I liked the movie. To say otherwise would be to lie. It is an elegant film, which fulfills what it promises and knows how to present itself as a solid production and stand out from the immensity of low-budget indie films that abound in the horror genre. It also seemed like a worthy successor to the first "The Conjuring" film. But I really lacked something, as I said before. I liked the way it builds tension and the atmosphere of suspense is genuine and solid. However, most scares are predictable and there is not much original. Another problem I felt was the uneven pace and the length of the film. The beginning is too slow, it takes a long time to introduce the story and an infinite amount of time passes before things start to "warm up". Afterwards, everything happens so quickly that we hardly have an opportunity to taste the fear.

Skillfully directed by James Wan, the film retains the participation of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson from its predecessor. Already familiar with their characters, they do even better than in the first film: Wilson is the one who has evolved and improved the most, but it is still Farmiga who steals the attention and dominates the film, with a great presence and a very competent performance. Frances O'Connor was also very good and professional in her role. Madison Wolfe and Lauren Esposito are also okay. Simon McBurney could have been better, but it seems to me that the script didn't give his character as much attention as the one he really deserved.

At a technical level, it is a film that justifies every cent of its budget: the CGI and the visual and sound effects are the best that was available to Hollywood and works fine, blending perfectly with a cinematography that captures the foggy London environment and loads it with more shadows and darkness whenever it is opportune. The light and the absence of it is, in fact, one of the elements that most helps to build fear in this film, as well as the sound, the sound effects and a subtle and more skillfully designed soundtrack than the one that was used in the first movie. The design of the monsters and demons worked perfectly, especially the nun, and the design of the sets is excellent.