I know I’m a little late talking about this movie but I watched it last night as part of my Halloween Horror Night and boy do I have some stuff to say.
This franchise is the perfect example of one step forward two steps back. For every single effective scene and beautiful cinematography trick, there’s a giant misstep that completely breaks any and all immersion. The first Conjuring movie suffered from this as well with the inclusion of Annabelle. That entire sub-plot should have been left out. It added absolutely nothing and any scene that featured it completely detracted from the final product.
The Conjuring 2 has its own version of Annabelle and it’s The Crooked Man. I was really enjoying this movie until he made an appearance. The pacing had been excellent and the movie was doing a very good job at creating tension. Then The Crooked Man shows up. The scene was completely useless and so poorly done it took me nearly the entire remaining run time of the movie to get back in to it. They then bring The Crooked Man back for…I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. It didn’t work the first time and worked even less the second time. Its inclusion just screams side movie. I guarantee, with Bitch-Cat and Lucy-Furr as my witnesses that within a year of this posting people will be lined up in the cinemas to see a solo Crooked Man movie.
The rest of the film I did enjoy though which makes what I talked about above so frustrating. This movie had all time great potential in my eyes. It dealt with the Enfield Haunting which I suggest you don’t look up yourself if you haven’t seen the movie yet. The main “villain” is grotesque and I love that they went with the image of a corrupted nun. I’ve mentioned a few times that I grew up a pretty devout Catholic so seeing anything like this is always a win in my eyes.
The acting is solid and I didn’t realize that Franka Potente was in this until the credits rolled. If you liked the first one then definitely check this one out. If you hated the first one The Conjuring 2 is absolutely more of the same. This franchise had so much potential it’s a shame and while I can appreciate all the ideas that got thrown in to the movies, somebody should have been there to reel some of them in.