rumbleinthejungle

A thoroughly enjoyable night out at the flicks. I saw the first film and loved it and I think I might have enjoyed this sequel even more and whats-more, the screening I went to of this was absolutely still and silent - James Wan had the audience in the palm of his hand which is exactly the way it should be.

Wan takes everything you loved about the first film and turns the volume up a couple of more notches. The set design, script, acting and scare scenes are all uniformly masterful. My only criticism would be that it was a tad long and the middle section of the film could have been trimmed down a bit; we reach a point as an audience where we feel that the setup has been established for the final act and we want to move into the final movement of the film but Wan lingers a bit too long and shows us one too many possession scenes I think. This is a minor criticism though.

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson deliver solid performances again and Madison Wolfe and Frances O'Connor (whom I enjoyed immensely in the excellent TV series The Missing) are also excellent. The scare set pieces are fantastic with the early scene of the demon visiting Lorraine at home being one of the best horror scenes in years. Great music and atmosphere and I was pleased to see that Wan even kept the creepy ascending yellow title scroll from the first film.

9/10. Loses one point for being slightly too long.

Great modern horror with it's roots firmly in the 1970's, both in the story's setting and also with it's production style and cinematography - The Conjuring doesn't disappoint. Without going into the plot I will simply say that this is a highly effective ghost story that surpasses it's peers by way of the skillful direction of James Wan and the uniformly excellent cast. We care for the Perron's and want to see them survive this terrifying ordeal and we believe that Ed and Lorraine Warren also care for the frightened family and are willing to do whatever it takes to help them.

The good - The sets, script and actors are all fantastic. The atmosphere starts off creepy and just gradually increases until the climatic final act. Extra marks for the highly effective sound design that heightens the audiences sense of terror during the scares. It was also nice to see a couple of welcome touches of humor offering some much needed light when things threatened to become almost unbearably tense and heavy.

The bad - even though the director teases the audience for almost an hour before showing us anything of the main ghost I still felt that he could have held off a good while longer. Some of the most effective scares in the film involve seeing nothing more than the black shadows behind an ajar door.

It was great seeing and hearing the audiences reaction to this film in the cinema. Once the film started the cinema fell completely silent apart from moments when anxious viewers implored a character to be careful etc. Great stuff. There is at least one unexplored plot thread that would make for a great sequel so here's hoping that Wan signs up for at least one more film.