Film Review: The Conjuring 2

The Conjuring 2 – 1 ½ (out of 4 stars)

If you saw the highly financially successful film The Conjuring, then you might be a little bit disappointed in this film. If you haven’t then you probably won’t like this film anyway since this probably isn’t your type of genre.

The conjuring series deals with the husband and wife paranormal investigative team of Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) Warren, whose skills are to remove evil spirits from their host properties. The original film took place in a dilapidated Road Island farm house and this new film takes place in Essex, a town in North London, England

This time it’s an impoverished single mother, raising four children, that are being plagued in their house by a malicious spirit.  You’re lead to believe that It comes in the form of an old man (previous owner who died while sitting in a worn-out easy chair), emanating havoc through one of the daughters. But is this the only spirit in the house? Pay no attention to that spirit behind the curtain or is it in the flooded basement?  And can someone please tell me when the basement is flooded (with 3 feet of water) for days on end? Isn’t there a plumber in the town of Essex? Think of the mold damage it creates.  Would you want to keep living there?  Just nonsense.

I found this movie to be a total waste.  It was a cheesy BOO in-your-face type of storytelling. I couldn’t stop laughing from the immature scare tactics that director James Wan used throughout this film.  Additionally, this film was so boring that it actually put a few of my colleagues to sleep. With an almost 2 ¼ hour run time it’s 20 minutes longer than the original.  45 minutes could have easily been cut out of this film to make it a little more bearable for the audience without any damage to the story.  Sometimes less is more.

I know young viewers like this type of movie but if you really want to see a movie that will scare you, go see the 1973 Exorcist or the 1982 Poltergeist two great films using original scare tactics that are just copied in today’s horror Films.

I am expecting the Hollywood Foreign Press to award this film with a Golden Globe for best musical or comedy.

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