The Conjuring 2
(film not reviewed)
Director: James Wan
Stars: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Frances O’Connor
Duration: 134 mins
Class: 15
KRS Film Releasing Ltd

For over half a century, renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated paranormal activity across the United States and beyond. They were famous for being respected experts on the subject of spirits and demonology, having investigated countless cases of unexplained phenomena.

Many of their cases have been explored on the big screen; with – possibly their most famous case – 1979’s The Amityville Horror (and its various sequels/remakes) and the recent Annabelle having storylines based on their casefiles. 2013’s superb The Conjuring, and now its sequel, feature the Warrens themselves, as played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.

“After everything we’ve seen, there, isn’t much that rattles either of us. But this one… This one still haunts me.” So says Lorraine Warren of the case brought to the screen in The Conjuring 2. It was the case she and her husband tackled in 1977, when they came out of self-imposed exile after the Amityville incident to travel to Enfield, in London, to assist Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor), a single mother of four children alone in a house possessed by a demonic entity. It was a case that became one of the most documented cases in paranormal history.

Like its predecessor, The Conjuring 2 arrives on a wave of critical and commercial acclaim

Director James Wan, returning to the Warrens’ world following The Conjuring, says that “everything Ed and Lorraine have been through since we met them in the first film has been leading up to Enfield. Out of the repertoire of cases they investigated over their lifetime, Enfield is one of the most compelling… and frightening. It’s also one of the most interesting in that in many ways it is a reflection of the Amityville haunting, so in the film we touch on that as well.”

Moreover, to avoid the feeling that this instalment was simply a re-tread of the original Conjuring, producer Peter Safran states that “the circumstances would allow us to make sure the film had a dissimilar look and feel from the first. London in 1977 – the miners’ strikes were going on, it was the birth of the punk movement – was a really different environment for the Warrens.”

The environment certainly allowed for a completely different feel. The setting was a council house in a crowded city as opposed to the farmhouse in the middle of nowhere where events of the first film took place. Furthermore, the Enfield case was enveloped in scepticism as the story reached the public thanks to the presence of police and the press.

“It got to be a bit of a circus after a while, with the amount of people that were going in there, talking about it. There was even a ventriloquist checking out whether or not the young girl was throwing her voice,” adds producer Rob Cowan.

However, what really ratchets up the tension in The Conjuring 2 is that this time, the family aren’t the only ones the possessing entity focuses on… whatever it is. It attacks the Warrens directly, too, causing both Ed and Lorraine to fear for each other as well as for the Hodgsons; and the film really focuses on their relationship,

“It was really joyful for me to step into Lorraine Warren’s Mary Janes and sprint another 20 miles,” says Farmiga, of the role she embodies so skilfully. “It requires you to bring your A+ game, but James really knows our ins and outs and how to reach us, and I think Patrick and I were even more confident and relaxed this time around.”

Ed Warren passed away in 2006, so Wilson never got to meet him. The actor says, however, that “I’ve been able to spend time with Lorraine so I know him through her eyes, and through Judy and Tony Spera, their daughter and son-in-law, as well as DVDs, audio recordings and so forth. On this one we were even more proactive about finding those character-defining moments in his life that we could put on screen.”

Like its predecessor, The Conjuring 2 arrives on a wave of critical and commercial acclaim – the filmmakers coming in for high praise for maintaining the original’s chilly atmosphere, strong script and heartfelt performances, yet the film being equally successful in its own right, a rare but welcome milestone in the annals of horror.

Also showing

The Secret Life of Pets: Max (Louis C.K.) is a spoiled terrier who enjoys a comfortable life in a New York building until his owner adopts Duke, a giant and unruly canine. During their walk outside, they encounter a group of ferocious alley cats and wind up in a truck that’s bound for the pound.

Luckily, a rebellious rabbit named Snowball swoops in to save the doggy duo from captivity. In exchange, Snowball demands that Max and Duke join his gang of abandoned pets on a mission against the humans who’ve done them wrong.

If you ever wondered what your pets get up to while you’re away from home, check out The Secret Life of Pets.