The Conjuring series is a good example of what I call "normie horror". That sounds dismissive, and it definitely is, but I don't look down at horror like this. It just isn't horror for me. These are movies for "normal" people. I am an abnormal sick puppy. In the past week I've seen a dude's dick explode, a woman get raped by a snake, and a teenage girl kiss her father. I am an explorer in the further regions of experience. Most people don't want that.
General audiences want The Conjuring. They want to be startled but not disturbed. They want a few jumps, not a lingering sense that their reality is fundamentally broken forever. There is nothing transgressive in The Conjuring or its sequel. They are fundamentally safe movies where good triumphs over evil, love conquers all, and good Catholic morals remain the bedrock of all. Nobody dies, nobody is maimed, but they are nicely spooked.
All that is fine. It isn't very interesting to me, personally. Basic Bitches need horror too and that is perfectly okay. If I had kids I probably wouldn't let them watch Mandy either. But all the billion Conjuring spin-offs like Annabelle or The Nun? Sure. I'd show them that.
The Conjuring 2 is a sequel that ignores the first old haunted house and first family. Instead we are following Lorraine and Ed Warren (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson), the paranormal investigator power couple. We open with The Amityville Horror, the case that made the real-life Warrens famous and inspired like 30 horror movies, most bad. Lorraine is so freaked out by Amityville that she wants to retire. That is until a another famous haunting, The Enfield Poltergeist in the London suburbs, draws them back into the world of demons. Saving that family and their daughter, Janet (Madison Wolfe), is the main focus of the movie.
Note: the actual Warrens were total con artists. Most of their cases were bullshit. But The Conjuring movies don't care about historical accuracy, anyway. And neither do you or neither do I. It isn't that important.
The best thing about either Conjuring movie is definitely the direction of James Wan. This guy can build a jump-scare like nobody else. The production just all-around is flawless. Wan is so good at this stuff it is annoying. He makes it look so easy where a million other filmmakers cannot make a haunted house movie half as good. The Conjuring 2 looks great. Maybe there is not much value gained out of using con-artists like the Warrens as heroes, but there is a ton of value gained from the English Seventies wallpaper and fashion.
About jump scares. A lot of horror fans whine about jump scares. However, I've never been against them as a technique. Some indie horror movies could use a jump scare or two, actually. If your pulse is racing and your adrenaline is running, that means the movie has had an effective emotional reaction. Nothing about them are "cheap". Maybe some movies overdue the jump scares. The Conjuring 2 does not. It even has a fake-out jump scare that I think was great filmmaking. More importantly, jump scares are fun.
Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are great leads. They're cool and confident enough to dive right into some X-Files shit. But they can still be freaked out when it goes out of their control. They have amazing chemistry. You wish your parents were this warm around each other and so accepting. Patrick Wilson is one of the most bland White guy actors in Hollywood. Yet he can sing Elvis like a pro - best scene of the movie. And yeah, there is a weird Good Dad charisma in his blandness.
I love the ghosts in The Conjuring 2 as well. There are three ghosts or demons in Enfield, which makes it a bit overstuffed. The best one is The Crooked Man, this long spindly creature that recites his own nursery rhyme while he tries to eat you. Then there's The Nun, who is always a solidly creepy silhouette. James Wan sets up these amazing scares. What you think is a dog transforms into a monster. Or an ugly painting turns into a monster rushing at Lorraine. Any time somebody goes down a basement alone is an absolutely master class of suspense.
Sure, The Conjuring 2 is not very extreme. It is sometimes so wholesome as to be outright corny. (That Elvis scene again.) But there is something to be said for a horror movie that leaves you feeling warm. You're too happy for these people by the end of The Conjuring 2 to really have nightmares.
The Conjuring 3 is supposed to come out next year. There is no reason to think, no matter how weird your tastes are, that you are too good for that movie.
Next Time: The Masque of the Red Death (1964), because I can't do a plague year without a plague movie.
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