The Conjuring 2 *** (2016, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Franka Potente, Frances O’Connor, Simon McBurney, Madison Wolfe) – Movie Review

Original director James Wan and writers Carey and Chad Hayes try to freshen the formula by a visit to the UK in this very reasonably exciting sequel to the 2013 hit The Conjuring. Actually, they have pulled off The Conjuring trick twice now. Though it doesn’t really make a lot of sense, it is just one darned scare after another in an effective thrill ride.

And it gets a lot of good mileage out of the will-he, won’t be killed scenario it sets up. It is supposed to be based on a true story, but most of it they are obviously making up just to scare us silly, and they do!

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again star as real-life Seventies American Church paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren, who this time are sent to Enfield in north London to help a poor, distraught single mother Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor) raising four children alone in a humble suburban house plagued by a malicious spirit.

Madison Wolfe plays the demonised teenage daughter Janet; Simon McBurney plays the helpful local reporter on the case, Maurice Grosse; and Franka Potente has a little role as a doubting media person. But it’s Farmiga and Wilson’s show, and they again put the heart and soul and personality into the devilish goings-on, helping to disguise the mechanical nature of the scares and the preposterous nature of it all. Hell, you really want to believe in spooks and the battle between good and evil for the hour and three quarters it is on screen.

Director Wan (Insidious, Saw) pulls you into his world, a bit Seventies Hammer horror, a bit today’s CGI, all very slick and confident, with no pauses or baggy moments – apart from Wilson’s extended musical Elvis impersonation, that is. Change of pace is good in a horror movie, but why this? Maybe just because Wilson can!

Will there be a Conjuring 3, so that there can be a Conjuring hat trick? I do hope so. There is plenty more mileage in the Farmiga and Wilson show. It just goes to show how casting first-rate actors, rather than movie stars, invigorates what could be a fairly tired formula.

Conjuring 3 is planned for 2020.

Lorraine Warren, the famed paranormal investigator and the inspiration for The Conjuring franchise, died on 18 April 2019, aged 92.

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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