The Conjuring 2

Released in 2016 this one is also known as The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case.  Set in 1970s Britain (conjuring - sorry - a reasonably accurate depiction too: I was there), a family home becomes afflicted with a haunting which seems to be primarily focussed on one of the young girls in the house.  She demonstrates signs of possession, with poltergeist-like activity taking place around her with increasing frequency and snowballing violence.  The police are of course powerless to do anything (seems reflective of their fight against today's yobby criminals...) but after witnessing an incident one of them suggests Church assistance.  This leads investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (returning from The Conjuring) to become aware of the case: these two experienced paranormal researchers are sent across the seas to London to take a look into the haunting whilst representing the Church in an unofficial fashion.  Simultaneously Lorraine has been having disturbing visions involving her husband's imagined death as well as very creepy nun - could this have any connection to the haunting in Enfield?  Or perhaps the whole thing is a scam to get the family moved into more appealing council premises...

The Conjuring is a powerful modern day horror with throwback characteristics, although I can think of little from the pre-2000s that is as terrifying to be honest.  Personally I find it an overwhelming experience in tension and fear, a trend that is continued in the second film: James Wan is quite a gift to the world of Horror.  Whilst this is a strong sequel I do have a couple of issues with it.  Firstly, it's too long at 134 minutes, and could have benefited from being shorn of 10 minutes or so at least.  Secondly, the first hour or so where the English family haunting sets its foundations can get a little repetitive, formulaic even.  The fright model works but is goes round in the same cycle four or five times before it gets back on track for the second half (i.e. day-time where a few ordinary things happen, night-time and a few bumps to scare the hell out of you, repeat several times over).  I can see how it was necessary to build up enough of a reason to get the Americans over to UK shores but it does get a bit much.  Despite this, I feel it becomes more intriguing once the investigators get down to work - there's a particularly good dialogue exchange between Ed and the ghostly old man, plus I really like the British investigator character, Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney), who shows up early on to give a hand.  Make no mistake, there are many scary moments along the way, making sure you have pretty much two hours of having your heartbeat put on hold (a good example is the crooked man sequence, but there are many more).  The climax is well-staged and full of tension, especially because Lorraine's horrific premonitions start to look like they could become reality.  The nun provides unexpected terror; indeed she's since been given her own spin-off movie entitled, cryptically enough, The Nun.

The UK Blu-ray features a fantastic 2.35:1 picture (HD probably allowing precise replication of what is most likely a 2K master), while the Dolby surround track will absolutely rock your room if you have a respectable system.  It's actually an Atmos track but will default to Dolby True HD if your equipment is not Atmos enabled (as is the case with me, though I hope to upgrade at some point in the next year or two).  Still, the True HD track multiples the terror several times over, giving you several sharp demo sequences to choose from if you feel the need to show your friends what your system can do.  There are also a bunch of extras including a look at the real-life Enfield case, deleted scenes, etc.  I'm not sure if my copy was HMV-exclusive but it came with quite a colourful slipcase (pictured) whose image differs slightly to that of the standard case.  Overall, this is an overlong but frightening continuation of the now so-called Conjuring universe that respects its predecessor to successfully deliver on much of the same sort of elements.