Pushing the 2-hour mark is never a good idea for ahorror film, and some fat definitely could have been trimmed. It uses familiartropes, such as self-starting children's toys, slamming doors, andsmashing furniture, but they're used as tools to mask the trulyfrightening fact that this family is up against something utterlybeyond their control - they're hopeless, and we can feel it.Mind you, The Conjuring 2 isn't without its faults. The longer the anticipation is built and the more atmosphereis created, the more unsettling the situation becomes until it's like aticking time bomb that you anxiously wait to go off. That's what true horror lacks these days,patience. His shots are designed in away to imbue dread and stir it around our heads for a while beforehitting us with the scare. The acting is uniformly great,but the true star of the film is James Wan. What The Conjuring 2 succeeds atis giving us both character development and another great story, whichis exactly what a good sequel should do. Similar to the Amityville Haunting, the Enfield Haunting sees anEnglish family plagued with a poltergeist that doesn't seem to enjoythe presence of anyone in the house. The Conjuring 2 is another 'basedon true events' tale that has us follow expert paranormalinvestigators, the Warrens, this time solving the mystery of theEnfield Haunting. It had the perfect amalgam of horror tropescrafted in such a way that felt as fresh and spine-tingling as classichaunted house movies did in the '80s. James Wan has proved himself a capable producer on projectssuch as Saw and Insidious, and with The Conjuring, he cemented himselfas a master of the genre. It combined every creepytrope you can think of (ghosts, dolls, music boxes, mirrors, you nameit), and it actually worked thanks to a genre-savvy director behind thecurtains. The Conjuring was a shocking horror film.