The conjuring 2 explained

Good sequels are hard to come by. This is doubly true in the horror genre, where sequels risk becoming serialised and formulaic — but The Conjuring, released in 2013, was always a different kind of horror film. The sequel follows closely in its footsteps, making use of strong characters and relationships to drive its spooky story. While The Conjuring 2 doesn’t fall victim to the horror genre’s proven inclination towards clones, the sequel feels familiar in a way that fans of the original film will appreciate.

Warning: spoilers within!

The film starts out strong and, like its predecessor, begins with a case that is largely — but not entirely — unrelated to its main focus on the Enfield poltergeist. This time around, it’s the Amityville Horror — something fans have wanted to see studied by The Conjuring‘s Ed and Lorraine Warren ever since the first film was released.

While many want to see the Warren’s investigation of Amityville as a full film, it’s extremely well timed as the intro to this movie. Not only does it add to continuity between films (the first film ended with a reference to “a case in Long Island”), but the Amityville hysteria that swept the world was also a direct influence on the coverage of the later Enfield case — with the latter being referred to as “England’s Amityville”.

After starting off with a bang and a few good scares, The Conjuring 2 settles in for the long haul — and I really mean long. At around two hours and 15 minutes, The Conjuring 2 is a lengthy film — probably longer than it needs to be, though that length is largely felt in gut-clenching tension rather than dragging boredom.

A few whole scenes could have easily been snipped with no real loss to the story. Most notably of these was a trite ‘welcome to London’ montage, complete with archival footage, red buses and The Clash’sLondon Calling. The scene was obviously intended to introduce the new setting, but it instead ended up at odds with The Conjuring‘s distinctive yellow subtitling — which quite clearly gives the location and date of the new scenes.

Once we get to England, however, the story finds its feet and starts to plod towards the inevitable, and it’s in these early scenes that The Conjuring 2 really sets itself apart from a lot of horror films. The Conjuringhas always distinguished itself as a movie that was about people as much as it was about the ghosts, and the sequel doesn’t disappoint — in fact it’s one of the only films I’ve seen that successfully combines horror and romance.

The Warrens are once again skilfully played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, and their relationship is one of the things that really brings the film’s story to life. They actually spend a good third of the movie back in the States, with Lorraine finding herself being stalked by an inhuman spirit that wants her husband’s life.

Over in England, Frances O’Connor’s Peggy Hodgson is the picture of a British working class single mother, one who isn’t depicted as being particularly brave yet still charges into the unknown again and again for the sake of her beloved children. Unlike The Conjuring and its spinoff Annabelle, however, this one isn’t about the mum.

The film focuses largely on her daughter Janet, the young girl whom the hauntings are centred around — even when she leaves the Enfield flat. Madison Wolfe puts in a solid performance as Janet, chronicling her torment at the hands of a cranky old man spirit and the media — but we’ll get to that in a minute.

This isn’t just a story about a ghost — it’s a story about a single mother with barely enough money to keep her four children fed and clothed, with a flooded basement and broken washing machine that’s been left for lack of money to get it fixed — or a man in the home to help fix it. It’s a story about four children who get bullied in school, whose closest friends are among their own family.

On the more cliché side of things, it’s a story that starts with an Ouija board.

As the ghostly presence moves in, the scares build slowly and the tension is created early on with nothing more than sound design and some creative camerawork — which also serves to get the audience acquainted with the layout of the haunted house. Where some films would have already shoved a monster in your face, James Wan is still building atmosphere with nothing more than a Dutch tilt and a slow pan across a dark room.

The first half of The Conjuring 2 is a wonderful game of bait and switch — the movie builds up expectations and tension, only to shatter them in the very next scene. A scare where you didn’t expect one, or a long, silent moment where you did, Wan toys with his audience masterfully. As evidenced by its length, this film isn’t afraid to take its time, and that is shown in a few particularly memorable scenes.

In one, the youngest son Billy gets up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, only to find his toy firetruck misplaced from its usual home inside his darkened play tent (as seen in one of the earliest trailers for The Conjuring 2). He puts it back inside and goes back to bed — just as the firetruck wheels out of the tent of its own accord, lights and sirens blazing. During the long silent pauses of this scene, you can’t help but anticipate the next burst of paranormal activity — but Wan makes you wait just long enough that you second guess whether it’s coming at all.

This scene with the tent is also one of a number of scenes that follows a tradition of haunted house films — identifying the main points of ghostly activity in the house and building expectations around those places. The tent, an old chair, one of the upper rooms and, of course, the basement are all firmly established as being bad news before the Warrens even step into the picture.

Also before our intrepid paranormal investigators do arrive, the film addresses the media circus that surrounded the Enfield haunting, and introduces the numerous real-life figures involved. One scene even recreates an infamous interview with Janet and Margaret Hodgson, right down to the girls’ postures as they sit on a dingy couch.

One of the most interesting things about The Conjuring 2 is the way it addresses the air of scepticism that surrounded both the Amityville and Enfield cases — which are both now widely agreed to have been hoaxes. In fact, most of the information you’ll find about Enfield online is more concerned with debunking the haunting than it is with actually chronicling what happened.

While most horror movies include skeptics in some way, none quite address it in the way that The Conjuring 2 has, with investigators and reporters often present to try and provide a more mundane reasoning for what is happening. Even clairvoyant investigator (and true believer) Lorraine Warren has her moments of doubt when she finds she can’t sense any ghostly presence in the house.

This atmosphere leads to one of the interesting explorations of character in The Conjuring 2 — that of Janet’s isolation as the target of a large part of the paranormal activity. By the time the Warrens arrive in England, Janet is almost unresponsive, being haunted by both a vengeful spirit and the academics and reporters who are determined to prove her a liar.

It’s while the Warrens are investigating that the movie starts to meander a little. This section is filled with great and inventive scares, but even the new ways in which the haunted Janet is tormented by the spirit of old man Bill start to feel repetitive when the result is always the same.

While tension is often built in new and interesting ways, James Wan has a tendency to return to one particular type of scare — the creepy face popping out of the shadows, something you may have also seen in Insidious, or to a lesser extent in The Conjuring. This film features no less than three different creepy faces, which all pop out at you multiple times at opportune moments. While it can feel repetitive, the effect is undeniable.

Wan is a known fan of practical effects, and the makeup design for each of the scary entities is spot on — utilising the uncanny valley effect by taking a human face and making it inhuman enough to be unsettling. The faces from The Conjuring 2 are one of the first things to have kept me up at night for some time.

After the scare-filled nights of The Conjuring 2 pass, the days are depicted as surprisingly pleasant — but those familiar with The Conjuring will recognise this as the calm before the storm. As much as they’re there to investigate a haunting, the Warrens also take it upon themselves to provide some much needed stability. Ed takes on the role of handyman, giving the plumbing and appliances some TLC that’s been much needed since Peggy’s husband left them. Lorraine is as patient and gentle as always, calming both a frazzled Peggy and her children.

Of course, the fun and laughter of the idyllic family scenes created by Ed and Lorraine’s presence (including an extended singalong to Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love”) can only mean one thing — the shit’s about to hit the fan.

From here The Conjuring 2 barrels through into its last act with gusto. The eventual denouement almost seems rushed, which is odd in a movie that stretches to a bloated two and a quarter hours, but the film gets its satisfying conclusion in the end.

Some of the morals pushed towards the end of the film are considerably heavy-handed, and a moment between Janet and the Warrens is almost too mushy even considering the overall humanity of The Conjuring 2, but at its core it is a film that manages to be more than just a two-hour-long frightfest.

The Conjuring 2 is a film that’s worthy of its predecessor, endeavouring to be even scarier than the original, while still retaining that focus on the characters that drive it. While it could do with being a little shorter, it’s a horror film that will restore some of your faith in humanity — and still keep you up at night.

QUESTIONING THE STORY

When did the Enfield haunting begin?

The Conjuring 2 true story reveals that according to the mother, Peggy Hodgson, the haunting of her Enfield home began on the evening of August 30, 1977. It was on that night that her daughter Janet told her that her brothers' beds were wobbling. The next evening, Mrs. Hodgson heard a loud noise from upstairs. She entered her children's bedroom and saw a chest of drawers moving. She tried to stop the heavy oak chest as it moved toward the door, concluding that an invisible force was trying to trap them in the room.

"It started in a back bedroom, the chest of drawers moved, and you could hear shuffling," recalled the real Janet Hodgson many years later in a Channel 4 Enfield Poltergeist documentary. Thinking that it was Janet and her siblings making the noise, she said that her mother told them to go to sleep. "We told her what was going on, and she came to see it for herself. She saw the chest of drawers moving. When she tried to push it back, she couldn't."

Did they hear a strange knocking coming from the walls?

Yes. The knocking would fade in and out as it ran down the wall, supposedly frightening the family so much that they all slept in the same room with the light on. Vic Nottingham, a neighbor, claims that when he went into the home to investigate at the family's request, he heard a knocking on the wall and on the ceiling, leaving him somewhat frightened. The knocking can be heard during thisJanet Hodgson interview that was conducted in the home.

Did dozens of crosses turn upside down?

No. In fact-checking The Conjuring 2 by comparing it to the real Enfield Poltergeist case, we found no evidence that crosses turned upside down on the walls of the Hodgson home. In fact, the upside down cross has not traditionally been a symbol of evil. It is the Cross of St. Peter, who was crucified upside down because he felt that he was not worthy to be crucified in the same way as Jesus.

Did the mother, Peggy, go to the neighbor's house for help?

Yes. While exploring The Conjuring 2 true story, we learned that single mother Peggy Hodgson took the family next door and pleaded for help. The neighbors, Vic and Peggy Nottingham, offered to go into the home to investigate. "I went in there and I couldn't make out these noises — there was a knocking on the wall, in the bedroom, on the ceiling," said Vic. "I was beginning to get a bit frightened." 

Did Janet Hodgson really levitate?

In The Conjuring 2 movie, Peggy's daughter Janet (Madison Wolfe) rises high in the air and finds herself pinned against the ceiling. This is a complete exaggeration of what allegedly happened in real life during the Enfield haunting. Photographs of the real Janet Hodgson "levitating" only show her a short distance above her bed (see below). This, coupled with the way her body is positioned in the air, has led many people to believe that she simply jumped from her bed. The questionable photos were taken by Daily Mirror photographer Graham Morris after the family contacted the press (it should be noted that the Daily Mirror is a UK tabloid newspaper whose stories have often proven less than credible). "The levitation was scary," recalled Janet, "because you didn't know where you were going to land."

Supporting the family's claims were two witnesses, a baker and a lollipop lady, who were passing by outside and claimed to have seen Janet hovering above her bed as they looked through an upstairs window. "The lady saw me spinning around and banging against the window," recalls Janet. "I thought I might actually break the window and go through it."

Did demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren really investigate the Enfield Poltergeist case?

Yes, but to a far lesser degree than portrayed in the movie, which is somewhat misleadingly billed as being "based on the true case files of the Warrens." Paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren briefly investigated the Enfield Poltergeist in the summer of 1978 and were just two of the many investigators to visit the Hodgson's North London home on Green Street. Most articles about the Enfield Poltergeist case don't even mention the Warrens, leading one to conclude that their role in the case was significantly dramatized for The Conjuring 2. In fact, Guy Lyon Playfair, one of the original paranormal investigators on the Enfield Poltergeist case, came forward prior to the movie's release and said that the Warrens had showed up "uninvited" and only stayed for a day. He also said that Ed Warren told him he could make him a lot of money off the case (Darkness Radio).

Ed Warren touched on the case and its skeptics in Gerald Brittle's book The Demonologist, stating, "...inhuman spirit phenomena were in progress. Now, you couldn't record the dangerous, threatening atmosphere inside that little house. But you could film the levitations, teleportations, and dematerialisations of people and objects that were happening there - not to mention the many hundreds of hours of tape recordings made of these spirit voices speaking out loud in the rooms." As the case became widely viewed as a hoax, some saw it as proof that the Warrens themselves were frauds.

Was 11-year-old Janet Hodgson really possessed by a dead man named Bill Wilkins?

While fact-checking The Conjuring 2, we discovered that this part of the movie was to some degree inspired by audio tapes of the real Janet Hodgson. In the recordings, she can be heard conveying a message via an eerie voice, which is supposedly that of Bill Wilkins, a man who had died in the living room of the house several years earlier. "Just before I died, I went blind," said the voice, "and then I had a hemorrhage and I fell asleep and I died in the chair in the corner downstairs."

An interview with Janet Hodgson at the time suggests that the idea of talking in a possessed voice may have been encouraged and planted in Janet's mind by paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse. When asked when the voices started, Janet said that one night Maurice Grosse told them, "All we need now is the voices to talk." Almost immediately following this suggestion, they did (the voices had mainly growled, barked and made similar noises prior to this).

"I felt used by a force that nobody understands," the real Janet Hodgson told the UK's Channel 4 years later. "I really don't like to think about it too much. I'm not sure the poltergeist was truly 'evil'. It was almost as if it wanted to be part of our family. It didn't want to hurt us. It had died there and wanted to be at rest. The only way it could communicate was through me and my sister." 

Did the man who allegedly possessed Janet die in the downstairs living room years earlier?

Yes. In exploring the Enfield haunting, we learned that Bill Wilkins' son Terry confirmed that he had died in a manner similar to what Janet described when she was possessed (Wilkins had passed away in an armchair downstairs after suffering a brain hemorrhage)

Did the paranormal activity begin after they played with a Ouija board?

Yes, at least according to the real Janet Hodgson, who says that she and her sister Margaret played with a Ouija board just prior to the start of the supernatural activity. -Daily Mail Online

How many children did the real Peggy Hodgson have?

In researching the Enfield Poltergeist true story, we learned that, like in The Conjuring 2 movie, the real Peggy Hodgson was a single mother with four children, Margaret, 12, Janet, 11, Johnny, 10, and Billy, 7.

Were Janet and her siblings bullied at school?

Yes, and according to Janet, the other kids called her "Ghost Girl" and put crane flies down her back. Her brother was tormented in similar ways. -Daily Mail Online

Did furniture really move?

Perhaps the most credible claim of furniture moving in the Hodgson home at 284 Green Street involved a policewoman, WPC Carolyn Heeps (pictured below), who signed an affidavit to the effect that she had witnessed an armchair levitate approximately half an inch and move close to four feet across the floor. In all, there were more than 30 witnesses to similar strange incidents in the home. In addition to furniture moving, they had supposedly witnessed objects flying around, cold breezes, physical assaults, pools of water appearing on the floor, graffiti, and perhaps most incredibly, matches spontaneously igniting.

Did the police do anything to help?

No. During our investigation into the real story behind the Enfield Poltergeist haunting, we learned that despite a female police officer witnessing a chair move, the police left after determining that it wasn't a police matter since no one was breaking the law. -Daily Mail Online

What caused the Enfield Poltergeist events to quiet down?

The real Janet Hodgson believes that it was a priest's 1978 visit to the family's Enfield home in North London that caused the haunting to calm down (not the Warrens), though the occurrences did not end completely. Peggy still heard noises in the house from time to time, and Janet's younger brother Billy, who lived there until his mother passed, remarked that you always felt like you were being watched.

Is it possible that the whole thing was a hoax?

Yes. Two experts from the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) caught the children bending spoons themselves. They also found it strange why no one was allowed in the room when Janet was talking in her possessed voice, which was supposedly that of Bill Wilkins (among others). Janet herself admitted that some of the Enfield haunting events were fabricated. In 1980, she told ITV News, "Oh yeah, once or twice (we faked things), just to see if Mr. Grosse and Mr. Playfair would catch us. They always did." In an article that was published in the year before the release of The Conjuring 2, Janet said that roughly two percent of the paranormal activity in their Green Street home had been faked. -Daily Mail Online

During a Margaret and Janet Hodgson interview that aired as part of a TV special in 1980, Janet is asked how it feels to be haunted by a poltergeist. "It's not haunted," Janet replies smiling. Her sister smiles in astonishment, as if Janet just gave up a secret, and whispers, "Shut up!" through muted giggles. Janet later said she didn't feel that the poltergeist was evil, meaning that the house wasn't necessarily "haunted."

Like the Enfield Poltergeist story, a slew of similar accounts emerged in the years following the 1973 release of The Exorcist. Some argue that the film gave birth to a culture of paranormal hoaxes carried out by those seeking money and fame. Others believe that the William Friedkin film allowed impressionable minds to become easily influenced by its demonic plot. In any case, similar alleged true stories emerged, such as the ones chronicled in The Amityville Horror, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the original Conjuring, and its spin-off Annabelle.

What happened to the Hodgson family after the paranormal activity subsided?

When the Enfield Poltergeist events subsided and the press attention faded, the family faced various challenges. Janet married young after leaving home at age 16. Her younger brother Johnny died of cancer at age 14. The family's claims of something paranormal being present in the house lasted all the way up until Peggy's death, at which time Janet's brother Billy moved out of the home. Janet, who will be 46 at the time of The Conjuring 2's release in 2016, lost a child herself, a son who died in his sleep at 18. She says that she didn't want to resurrect the painful memories of the Enfield Poltergeist events when her mother was alive, but that she is now ready to tell her story.

why is the demon Valak shown as a nun and aren't nuns good people and devotees of Jesus?

The demon valak is real and is mentioned in many ancient texts as an angel on a two headed dragon and is known to be the president of hell.

Some good people turn evil.

Take the example of satan who was the highest of all the angels but wasn't happy and wanted to replace god. So, just like him maybe a nun (valak,as portrayed in the movie) turned bad and became a part of hell.

Things  wants everybody to know about valak

1. Valak is really a small boy with angel wings

In demonology, he was regarded as the Great President of Hell. He is a boy who rides in a two-headed dragon and a commander of 30 legions of demons. Live Sci-fi believes the demon in “The Conjuring 2” has a closer resemblance to Beelzebub, the demon of lies. Director James Wan admitted the design of the demon character was one thing he was not quite sure of.

2. He is a subject of many historical texts

He is one of the 72 demons in the “Lesser Key of Solomon,” a spell book on demonology. It was compiled as early as 17th century.

3. Valak wanted to kill Ed Warren

It is because he is opposing his intentions to kill Janet. So what’s with Janet that the demon wants her? There are claims that the real Janet is a gifted ventriloquism or the power to manipulate voices and she admitted faking some events. In an interview with The Telegraph, Janet Hodgson Winter revealed that around two percent of the haunting was phony.

4. He was in Ed and Lorraine’s house but he’s got nothing to do there

In fact, that entity is everywhere. He’s at home at Amityville, and in Enfield. He was in the painting, because Ed said he saw him in a dream. Lorraine said it was the same demonic nun in her vision. But aside from the painting, he was behind them in the kitchen. His name was also shown in the name of the bracelets that their daughter Judy is making. But Wan explained to io9 that the nun has got nothing to with Amityville. “She’s just having a psychic premonition,” he said about Lorraine seeing the nun at their home.  

5. He can give true answers about hidden treasures. Mark Rogers wrote in his “The Esoteric Codex: Demonology I” that Valak reveals where serpents can be seen and delivers them harmless to the magician.