I watched the first Conjuring on a train, on a far too big laptop, on headphones.
I shrieked.
More than once.
And the ends clapping in the wardrobe sequence still makes the hairs on my neck stand on end.
Since the breakout hit of the original back in 2013 scared up a more than decent return at the global box office, there have been many more attempts at using the ‘real life’ cases as popcorn fodder.
The results have been patchy, even if commercially successful. Here, we return to the trials and tribulations of supernatural investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), and the new film is based on the real-life trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, a notorious nationally publicized murder case in which Johnson notoriously claimed “The devil made me do it” as his defense.
In the prologue, Johnson is present during his little brother’s exorcism, which (obviously) goes terribly wrong, resulting in Johnson’s ‘possession’.
What follows is solid if unspectacular thrills and spills. There are some excellent shots and sequences, like a clever shot of a shower-curtain rod that obscures demonic claws, or an apparition inside a water bed, but these are then quickly shunned for shouting and gloom.
A real shame.
Click on the film poster for film times and details
