Conjuring 2: haunted house with a story

I wasnt that impress with the first Conjuring. It was too run-of-the-mill for me, though I do agree that James Wan used all the trick in the book near to perfection to his advantage. All the scare tactic, sudden noise, play of shadow, but somehow I find it... bit soul-less. I am so glad to say that Conjuring 2 is the opposite, it impressed with me a lot!


The plot centred around the Enfield haunting, where a poor English family was disturbed by a grumpy old ghost which seems to want them out of his house badly. Imagine children being moved in sleep, furniture moves on its own, and weird sounds at night. As usual, Ed and Lorraine Warren were asked by the church to observed the authenticity of the haunting before deciding to be involved. It is fairly similar to the first movie setting.


The first half of the film appeared rather sterile. The tricks were good, though, as if entering a haunted house in a carnival. Clever use of camera angle plus sound and shadow makes you sit on the edge of the seat, contemplating whether to close your eyes or not. However, it does appeared harmless in the first half, as the ghost appeared to be a haunted old man who just want the family to move out of his Enfield house. The middle of the film set real mood of the show, centering on the relationship of the Warrens, the sufferings of the family haunted by the ghost, and the climax of the show did the movie justice... things were not what it seems in the begining.



The character portrayed well, the effect not so cheesy (except for the stick man which resemble Nightmare before Christmas), the scare works efficiently... there is little to fault in this film. The emotion is done so well here, which was evidently missing in the first film. Scare, tears, and relief at the end... Conjuring 2 manage so many things so well that it is one of the films which outshine the originals. Oh, by the way, did I mentioned that the story was based on a real event?

ratings: 4 poink~!
comments: extra poink for a Malaysian borned director....though still yet to beat my all time favourite in Emily Rose.