Everyone who hates The Conjuring should love The Conjuring 2; unlike the first film, the second doesn’t make a plot-based historical oopsie and suggest that maybe women killed during the Salem witch trials actually were witches. But if The Conjuring 2 is a victory for social criticism on paper, it’s a defeat for integrity in franchising in practice (such as franchise horror movies like this can really be “defeated,” of course, because this sucker’s probably going to have a boffo box office score). It’s a well made movie, as most James Wan movies tend to be, but it loses its scantly explored themes and ideas in repetition and formula. When it’s fun, it’s fun. When it’s a drag, it’s a real drag, and it’s mostly a drag. Click the words “Paste Magazine” to find out more.
A Constant Visual Feast 
Say it ain’t so! I’ll reserve further comment until I see it myself. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Sadly, it is so, at least as far as my own opinion is concerned – but maybe you’ll like it more than I did!
Okay, Andrew, so I buckled down and saw it. I’ma hafta give it a B+ because Vera Farmiga and sweet lil’ Madison Wolfe both gave brilliant performances. I also thought it was a really good ghost story, even though the formula is, well, *familiar*.