After having a horrid time in office throughout the week, I was determined to release my tension by watching a good movie. My choice was narrowed down to mainly 2 movies: "Udta Punjab" and "The Conjuring 2". After all the unseemly controversies about Udta Punjab, just when I tended to go for the film, my wife put a sudden break on my flight of thought by asking, "Who are the stars in the film?" When I said Shahid Kapoor was the hero, she quipped, "Oh, that short buffoon! No, I am not gonna see his film." Thus, "The Conjuring 2" had won the race and we headed for our super-Saturday evening show at the Inox City Centre, Salt Lake.
James Wan, the director of “Saw” and “Insidious,” is a horror filmmaker of such an amazing skill that you will feel a glimmer of admiration for his talent just beneath your tingling spine. In “The Conjuring 2”, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), the real-life supernatural investigators who made their reputations on the Amityville case, are back from Wan’s 2013 smash-hit “The Conjuring".
In the small British town, Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor) struggles to maintain a home as a single mother of four children, but finds things get extremely harder when a demonic presence begins to terrorize the residence. The paranormal presence specifically targets Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe), the youngest daughter, and at night she is subject to a wide variety of terrors – ranging from waking up in the living room, to being physically attacked and bitten. As the case begins to attract attention in the country, the Catholic Church calls on Ed and Lorraine to investigate the happenings – hoping that they can either determine that it’s all a hoax, or possibly rid the house of the evil that persists there. The spooky drama unfolds from here and ends in a spine-chilling climax, which you should see for yourself.
The Conjuring 2” makes it easy to revel, because Wan has a gift that most slam-bang horror directors today do not: a sense of the audience — of their rhythm and pulse, of how to manipulate a moment so that he’s practically controlling your breathing. His specialty is the tracking shot, with the camera whooshing forward, the way it did in “The Shining,” only Wan, in “The Conjuring 2,” sends it rushing through creaky floorboard hallways and cramped bedrooms, which are made to seem much larger because the images are so alive they’re almost vibrating.
Patrick Wilson, in jet-black hair and Elvis-sideburns, and Vera Farminga seem to be playing the world’s nicest ghost hunters, and there’s a reason for that: The secret weapon of “The Conjuring” and, now, “The Conjuring 2” is that they’re evangelical horror movies. Wilson plays Ed like a homespun televangelist, with Lorraine as his beaming-eyed partner in faith. Ed wields a keepsake crucifix that hangs on his necklace, but what the film implies is that the Warrens’ whole obsession with haunted houses is driven by their faith.
After watching the reactions in the hall, I can vouch that Wan has been completely successful in making an enthralling horror movie. There were umpteen loud screams in the theatre, especially in the final part of the movie. My wife was so terrified that she grabbed my hand forcefully on multiple occasions. There is a report in the media that a 65-year-old man had suffered a heart attack and died during the climax of the movie. My advice to the weak-hearted people will be not to see the movie. In case you are determined to see it, go with a partner.
As far as acting is concerned, I think Madison Wolfe, playing the role of Peggy’s youngest daughter, Janet, has done a magnificent job. She played the role of an innocent 11-year old girl -- who couldn't forget the scolding she got when she was falsely accused of smoking in her school -- beautifully in her normal-self. When she was possessed, her acting was even better.
Our Hindi horror-film makers should take a leaf out of Wan's book. I have seen a lot of Hindi horror films. Unfortunately, these movies lag miles behind English movies.
Finally, the rating! Like its predecessor, The Conjuring 2 received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 77%, based on 166 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. As a fan of Wan, I shall give the film 8/10.
Pictures taken from the internet
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