Director films horror movie in pub after stopping there for lunch

Its blueprint is agonizingly familiar, although Wan (who directed and co-wrote) adds a nice change of scenery – England in 1977 – and an emotional undercurrent that proves surprisingly compelling. “I didn’t know how I was going to live up to the first one”.

The Conjuring 2 is rated 14A. The Hodgson family comprises single mum Peggy (Frances O’Connor of “The Missing”); 11-year-old Janet (Madison Wolfe); Margaret (Lauren Esposito), 14; Johnny (Patrick McAuley), 10; and Billy (Benjamin Haigh), 7. “So we pick up with Lorraine who is quite haggard and exhausted because (Amityville) has taken a toll on her”.

Like the first film, the story has been taken from the Warren’s case files. It’s 1977 and Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor), an exhausted and anxious single mother, lives with her four children in a rundown council house. Odd things start to happen in her home, particularly to Janet (Madison Wolfe), the second oldest.

She sleepwalks, lost in hellish nightmares.

“(She and her husband Ed) for 30 years, they were the go-to couple to investigate the most notorious cases of haunting in this country (America) and overseas. Characters who wonder whether Janet is a hoaxer, or maybe a disturbed girl exploited by the tabloid media, are seen as exhibiting bad faith.

If anything, “The Conjuring 2” plays as a spiritual sequel to “The Exorcist”, with Madison Wolfe stepping into the Linda Blair role as the vulnerable Janet Hodgson. Wan uses that expert eye to ratchet up the tension during the scare scenes, including many creative camera angles and lens choices to focus our attention to certain areas of a shot, which may or may not be where you should be looking. Now 3 years on, we finally see the sequel to what can easily be said was one of the best horror films of recent times. Nearly all of them to this point have focused on the villain: Your Jason’s, Freddy’s or Ghostface’s.

This film is the bigger, badder version of The Conjuring. In fact the film doesn’t waste a minute in bringing on the scare fest that lasts right through the film.

During an appearance on Good Morning America, Wilson discussed the importance of relationships in horror film.

In 1977, the Enfield Hauntings, as they became known, took over United Kingdom and world-wide headlines. (Ed Warren died in 2006). The affinity these films have for the Warrens is apparent. But since there’s a movie about the incident, and since it’s – qualifying here – true, we know they make the trip. A successful ghost story requires the audience to sympathize with the people being haunted, so we not only need to spend time with them during the period of mild supernatural occurrences at the start, but also during the quiet times when they can breathe and just be a normal family.

James Wan completely understands this, and he takes his time telling the stories. The complexity of the plot definitely makes this more engaging.

It winds up too deliberate and repetitive in its approach, which leads to a third act that doesn’t have a sufficient payoff, but rather just more of the same cheap thrills, red herrings, and religious mumbo-jumbo. Instead of the typical thought process for sequels, where they try to figure out what the best moments were from the previous movie and attempt to recreate them, thinking that’s what audiences want, “The Conjuring 2” is able to tell a fresh story. You may note that this list of films seems to follow along very similar lines: An innocent family is taken over by an evil demon spirit, and it’s up to some outside force to come in and rid the area of its satanic blight.