Movie Review: ‘Conjuring 2' summons up some strong scares

There's no way around it. When a sequel to a successful mainstream movie is made — and the 2013 fright fest "The Conjuring" was a big success both critically and at the box office — there are going to be comparisons. So here they are: "The Conjuring 2," directed by the original's James Wan, and again featuring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as real-life demon busters Ed and Lorraine Warren, is bigger, better, louder, creepier, wetter, and more romantic. Yes, romantic.

After a brief full-of-dread prologue on the Warrens' most celebrated case, centering on some grisly, supernatural happenings in Amityville, New York, in 1976 (the story of "The Conjuring" happened in Rhode Island in 1970), the film jumps up to 1976 and over to Enfield, England, outside of London. You can't mistake the time or place: The Clash and The Hollies are on the soundtrack.

There, living in a rickety old house, where it's almost always raining and the cellar is usually flooded (the opening lyrics to that Hollies song are "Bus stop, wet day"), is the Hodgson family: Divorced mom Peggy (Frances O'Connor), older daughter Margaret (Lauren Esposito), younger daughter Janet (Madison Wolfe), and two younger brothers Johnny and Billy. And, it appears, the angry, destructive, malevolent spirit who calls himself Bill Wilkins when he begins to take over the voice and actions of young Janet.

As in "The Conjuring," this is a film filled with aural and visual shocks, along with fluid cinematography (cameras float in and out of rooms, following characters in complicated long shots), excellent performances (we will see a lot of young Madison Wolfe in the future), and a permeating sense of the sinister.

But while it focuses on the bad things happening in the Hodgson household, there's also an equal share of what's going on with the Warrens. They're at a point in their career as "agents of the church," helping people who are plagued by demons, where they're exhausted by the emotionally and physically draining work, and are fed up with being called fakes by skeptics. But the script also makes it clear that despite having opposite temperaments, they're deeply in love with each other, are true soul mates.

When Lorraine experiences a strong premonition about Ed suffering a violent death, she says they have to stop doing what they're doing. But when the desperate Hodgsons get in touch with the English Church, and the English Church gets in touch with the American Church, and the American Church yet again calls on the Warrens, Lorraine and Ed are off to Enfield, because they just can't say no; they need to help.

It's there that things have gone from really bad to much worse for the Hodgsons, and unpredictably placed aural and visual shockeroos make a good case for viewers not to hold on too loosely to their popcorn and sodas. Janet is starting to speak in a whispery male voice, saying, "This is MY house." But before long, those words aren't whispers anymore. And spirits aren't knocking on closed doors in the middle of the night, they're pounding on them. They also move furniture around and are prone to biting people.

And then old Bill Wilkins appears. Or is it, as one English skeptic insists, Janet speaking in a fake voice, trying to get attention. Here's a better question for anyone thinking about seeing this film: Do nuns freak you out? What about nuns that look like Marilyn Manson?

It's all a shivery fun time that keeps a mostly serious tone. One character explains that the Church can't do anything about the problem — a hint at an exorcism — without proof of a demon in the house. Shortly after that, Lorraine calmly announces, "There's a demonic presence in that house."

This is just one more case that the Warrens worked on, and they did that work for decades.

There are plenty more stories about them to be told and hopefully films about them to be made.

— Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.

"The Conjuring 2"

Written by Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, David Leslie Johnson, and James Wan

Directed by James Wan

With Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Frances O'Connor, Madison Wolfe

Rated R