SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.I love how the camera glides through the Hodgson residence early on, implying that the house is related to the same spectral area that the Amityville residence and Lorraine are privy to. There’s a purpose to the long tracking shots through the abode, giving Wan a chance to tie substance to his stylized exploration of the abode. Given the house’s “agency” and presence, the camera movements give the abode a similar feeling to the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

This relation to “shining” is exemplified in the story’s “soft” ruleset regarding its astral projection. Wan chooses to show how there are presences exacting their influence in different domains whether they take the form of people or specters, but he never explains why certain entities have to engage with the narrative in the winded ways they do. He implies certain rules, but the decision to show and let the audience “deal with it”, lets him get away with more contrived story decisions.

2.Janet’s first “possession” lets us know it’s happening by the push-in of the camera. We know that an supernatural presence is making its influence felt on the young girl, but the nature of what’s happening to her is unknown. Even when the camera pulls back to reveal that she’s now in the living room, the nature of her travel is left ambiguous. Nothing is revealed

3.When Billy goes down to get water, he notices the a swing moving outside by itself but thinks nothing of it. The camera pushes in on him as he observes, indicating that he’s viewing something supernatural. As he leaves the kitchen, the camera cuts to Janet grimacing in pain and it becomes clear that she’s astral projecting. The pattern is an inversion of the opening; the astral projection is being viewed from the perspective of the living.

4.I adore how Wan transitions from day to night at the end of the movement mentioned in the third point. The camera pans from Peggy taking Janet up to the latter’s bedroom and then pans back towards the couch and the window, indicating that night has now swapped to day. The camera then pulls back from the window revealing Janet being framed by the television, indicating that her rendezvous with the other world is only beginning. It’s fitting then that the television which frames her marks is the device which Bill chooses to make his presence known to the young girl.

5.Outside of the horror sequences, The Conjuring 2 features moments of genuine comedy. In particular, the scene of the police coming to the Hodgson residence is hilarious. They start off by trying to assert their role as purveyors of the truth, attempting to assuage Peggy and co.’s concerns. But as they move from the kitchen to the passageway to investigate the situation, it becomes clear they’re out of their depth. They meekly try and blame the disturbances on a mouse, but the entities in the abode are more than fine proving that hypothesis incorrect as they push the chair the police moved from the kitchen back to its place. The entire movement is captured in one take which lets the tension build up , but it ends on a hard cut of the police dashing out of the abode which lets the tension release as laughter.

6.Valak’s first interaction with Judy and Lorraine is the most frightening sequence in the film. It starts with the camera pushing on both Judy and Lorraine’s faces, indicating that they’re entering the astral plane. However, because the film has only demonstrated a single living entity ever operating in the plane, the duo’s presence in the hallway tricks the viewer initially into believing that the scene is still operating in the world of the living.

Then Judy points out Valak standing in the hallway and the camera cuts to the malevolent entity just standing menacingly at the end of the hallway. Like the scene showcasing the twin girls in The Shining, the fear in this scene doesn’t come from a loud noise or overt violence but from the unwavering focus on a malevolent entity casually imposing its will. Valak walks away from the encounter, a sharp contrast from expectations, and creates an air of uncertainty. What is the spirit trying to do?

Lorraine chases it to the room where Ed’s painting of the entity lays hanging on the wall. In the shadows, the eyes of the Nun are clearly alive – a cursed energy courses through them. However, when Lorraine puts the light on, the eyes fade to “normal” in the form of the painting. Eventually, the presence makes itself known and emerges from a painting behind Lorraine.

The shadow walks across the wall, conjuring up similar images of Nosferatu crawling up against the wall towards his victims from F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. The shadow slowly creeps around the room and makes its way the painting, becoming an unholy unison. Arms slowly protrude from the sides of the painting and the quiet, slow pace breaks as the Nun rushes at Lorraine. The pressure building up to now finally explodes as the confrontation becomes intense and spectacular.

As Lorraine questions the nun, a cut to the corporeal realm informs the viewer unaware of the visual motif that everything up to now has only occurred in the astral realm. Lorraine writes the Valak’s name in her bible and then the entity reveals to the audience, that the vision tormenting Lorraine is that of her husband’s death. The shadowy figure from earlier is none other than Ed. The stakes are raised.

7.The interrogation scene between Ed and Janet employs shallow focus with fantastic results. The scene is shot in one constant take and shows a shadowy and out of focus Janet slowly transform into the elder spirit of Bill all while Ed continues to interrogate her. The transformation is unnerving because the nature of what’s occurring is occluded just enough to inform us of what’s technically happening while forcing us to imagine the how of it all.

This framing is then replicated at the film’s climax, this time with deep focus, but Ed and Janet’s positions are now reversed. Now Janet is in control and has usurped Ed’s position. The tables have turned.

8. The editing in the scene of Bill transporting Janet to her cross-filled room is crisp and kinetic. It starts with the push-in on Janet as she sleeps with Peggy. The pull-out reveals that she’s been transported, but the nature of what’s happened to her is unclear. She looks down to see Bill and the film cuts back and forth between the two, as the latter walks up towards the former.

As Janet’s arm is pulled, a cut back to Bill pulling her from next to her mother confirms that Janet is astral projecting. She can’t guard her body as her spirit is forced to watch another entity jostle it around. The cut from Bill pulling the rope up is matched by a pan up through the ceiling/floor itself which ends with Janet waking up in the sealed up room.

It suddenly becomes clear how Janet could subjectively perceive what her body is doing as an out-of-body experience in spite of her body moving itself in the corporeal sense. She’s not “in” her body so its experiences aren’t recognized by her.

9.While I usually enjoy Wan’s needle drop moments, I think they’re incredibly misplaced here. The narrative establishes that music is the facet that the Hodgson’s most miss in their family and what they most associate with their now absent father. This is why the kids, Billy and Janet in particular, are so focused on the Crooked Man zoetrope. It’s the only source of music left in the house – a remnant of the home life and security they yearn for. When Janet becomes the Crooked Man and terrorizes Billy, it’s a perversion of the initial scene of the two of them singing the song. Now their home is broken and music can no longer provide a respite from the realities of the world.

This is why Ed’s Elvis routine is so touching. He brings a sense of emotional warmth back to the house and family and reminds them of the unity present among their unit. If all the non-diegetic music was removed and the diegetic music moments were restrained to the Crooked Man song and Ed’s cover, the film would be able to stress the way the loss of music has broken the family in. It doesn’t help that the music choices are so on-the-nose here that they feel distracting as opposed to a wallpaper meant to accentuate what’s on the screen.

10.While Ed’s realization that the tapes with Bill via the possessed Janet are fragments of a comprehensive message seems tacky at face value, it’s presentation is consistent with the film’s approach to supernatural presence. The camera pushes in on both Ed’s face and the tapes on the floor, demonstrating the presence of a holy entity.

The moment hearkens back to Lorraine’s earlier recollection of seeing an angel. There’s evidence that the holy operates in the “real” world, so Wan is able to transform contrivance into miracle. The way the tapes intersect with each other marks a spot like an “X” and recalls the image of the cross. Given both Ed’s earlier conversation with Janet regarding his personal cross and the malevolent occurrences happening in Janet’s cross-filled room, the image of a cross recovered is poignant. The divine literally intervenes to allow the Warrens to save the Hodgson family.