"The Conjuring2: The Enfield Poltergeist," the much awaited sequel to director James Wan's "The Conjuring" released on Friday, June 10. In it, the Warrens, who are reprised by Vega Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, will be seen back in action, trying to save a new family from malicious spirits.
The 2013 film was a surprisingly new take horror genre, with little gore or VFX effects, banking more of the shock and surprise elements. It was a very successful experimentation on Wan's part, and more or less he maintains this format with the new film.
Here is what the critics had to say about "The Conjuring 2:"
Coming Soon (8/10)
With the bigger scale, The Conjuring 2 loses a little of the intimacy of the first, but the scares stay constant and terrifying. In the context of the film, these terrors feel frighteningly real, and audiences shouldn't get hung up on the accuracy and should just let the film work its magic. You're sitting down at a campfire, listening to a story and hoping to be scared. That's what we want from movies like this, and The Conjuring 2 delivers. The Conjuring 2 is a very satisfying and scary sequel, and this is a franchise that should continue to terrify us for a long time to come.
Screen Crush (3/10)
If The Conjuring is an example of the haunted house movie done right, The Conjuring 2 is an example of everything gone wrong. You can only retread old tropes so many times.
Forbes (no rating)
The fact it has excellent production values and the same crew and lead cast as the first movie also suggests a lot of viewers will be content to sit through this 2 hr 19 minute CGI jump-fest and treat it as an acceptable heir to the first film's legacy. But if you appreciated the first film precisely because it transcended many genre tropes and preferred suspense to big, loud effects-driven moments, and if you liked the play with subtext and more human portrayals of our two ghost-busting leads, then I suspect you might feel let down by "The Conjuring 2" the same as I was.
The New York Times (no rating)
Skip this film if you can't suspend disbelief; it's entertainment, not a documentary, and though the characters of course discuss whether the haunting is real, that's not what the director, James Wan, is interested in. He wants to scare and unsettle you, and does.
Firstpost (no rating)
There's no denying the predictability of all this, and you can see the ending coming from a mile away. The reveal of what the ghost in the house is feels anticlimactic, and there's little that seems at stake when the Warrens eventually begin to fight the ghost... The only way for the supremely talented Wan to bypass John Carpenter levels of horror greatness is if he attempts horror movies with better stories. For now this is simply an entertaining date movie, and a surprisingly good horror sequel entry. Carry an extra pair of underwear to the theaters and unpack them when the scene with the painting begins.
The Hindu (no rating)
Ironically, the parts I most enjoyed were ones that had nothing to do with the demon or its banishment. There's a great scene when Wan temporarily lightens up the murkiness of it all by having Ed (Wilson) play the guitar at the Hodgson residence. In another scene, one of the men investigating the case expresses his hope that the Hodgsons aren't bluffing about the demonic activity.
Watch the trailer for "The Conjuring 2" here:
