Not all people like to be frightened — cliff diving, swimming a river full of crocodiles, landing a Navy jet aircraft during a black and stormy night onto the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier are a few examples of things not everyone is cut out for. I regret I haven’t done any of these things, but it’s a thrill thinking about them.
I like to be frightened at the movies, to be startled, to jump out of my seat; I like the adrenaline flowing when a demonic nun with blank eyes, sharpened teeth and bloody gums appears in my mirror as I shave. Now, that’s entertainment!
Typically, I would be loath to recommend any film with a number following its title. “Godfather 2” was a great sequel, but such films are few and far between. “The Conjuring 2” does a pretty good job. Let’s say that the movie achieved certain cinematic objectives in its genre; it occasionally caged my eyeballs and lit my hair on fire.
Writer/director James Wan has a good handle on cinematic supernatural. He nicely integrates all the best features of “The Exorcist” (for pre-pubescent female possession by the devil) and “The Haunting” (the 1963 Robert Wise-directed standard for all future haunted house films). He scares us to death. There is pounding on the doors and walls of empty hallways, ectoplasmic suggestions of wandering souls, levitation, shaking beds, furniture that flies across the room and little girls who speak in hoarse swamp-rot.
There is enough menace and actual horror, paced just so, that the most hardened individuals (I’m not one of them) are either jumping out of their seats or hiding under them. This is a crackerjack scary movie. One good thing about this film is that the horrors are not confined to only what young Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe) sees and hears. The demon within actually follows her and is demonstrable to one and all. Furniture flies and she levitates no matter where she is. All of that and above is the good stuff.
Enter the couple — Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) — that come to the rescue of this East London household. The real-life Warrens achieved considerable notoriety for their work with the Catholic Church in identifying and routing out displaced souls in the Amityville haunted house. So it’s said. That they are, or might be, charlatans of the first order is merely an ancillary consideration.
The contention in the film is that they are present in this house to provide paranormal evidence to the church. One might ask, “Why doesn’t the priest come, all by himself, and watch this kid be planted to her bedroom ceiling while all the crosses in the room turn upside down?”
The horrors in this London house are actually amplified by the presence of the Warrens. However, as acting and screenwriting go, their performances are so insipid, doe-eyed and mealy-mouthed that this observer started cheering for Satan. The last thing victims want or need in fighting the devil is sentimental goo-ga. James Wan had a good thing going until he introduced the Warrens. Which is not to say that, ignoring the Warrens every time they’re on screen, this film isn’t a real treat. The premise was realistically good with sufficient threat across the Hodgson family, there was appropriate doubt about the veracity of Janet’s experiences and the editing never lets you catch a breath.
“The Conjuring 2” is R-rated and I’d recommend bringing the kids only in order to punish them with nightmares for the rest of their lives.
