Back in 2013, director James Wan introduced us to Ed and Lorraine Warren, played brilliantly by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, in The Conjuring. A loosely true ish story about possession, hauntings and everything in between. It was a huge success and for me, one of the best horror films I’d seen for quite some time, going back to an old fashioned style of creating an atmosphere for the viewer instead of just resorting to blood and guts.
A sequel was inevitable, but we got far more than that, with spin offs, stand alone films, prequels all happening to create the so called “conjuringverse”
So here we are, with the 8th film in this shared universe and I have to say it’s one of the more enjoyable and better executed. I own all of these films and love them all, but I will say that some are very definitely not as good as others. This film takes place in 1981, 10 years after the events of the first Conjuring film and is really the first time in this series that we think about the fact our protagonists are aging, it’s clear in this film that time and lifestyle (if you’ve seen the other films you’ll understand) are starting to catch up with Ed and Lorraine.
The story once again has one foot loosely in reality (or at the very least in history) and follows the story of the exorcism of David Glatzel and then Arne Johnson, a man who stabbed his landlord to death and used possession as his defense. The Glatzel setting is really well done, we meet them just before the exorcism takes place and what I really liked was seeing the state of the house, broken glass, smashed furniture, claw marks on the walls all point to hell having broken loose, but never explained. I found it nice that the film trusts the viewer to imagine what happened rather than having to explain it all. In the case of Johnson I would have liked to see some of the court case, but these are paranormal films, not courtroom dramas.
I’m aware this is still a very recent release so I won’t go too much into the story so I don’t spoil it for anyone, but I will say I had a very enjoyable 2 hours. All the good stuff from these films is present, including the traditional long sweeping shot through a building, in this case the dog kennels where Johnson lives with his girlfriend (I think my favorite is the shot through the Hodgson house in the Conjuring 2). Another high point for me is where Ed and Lorraine help solve a case of one dead girl and one missing, seeing the emotional strain on Lorraine as she experiences the events almost first hand is almost as upsetting for the viewer as it is for her, and a reminder that this isn’t the same Lorraine we met back in 2013.
The biggest highlight for me though is seeing Wilson and Farmiga as the Warrens again, I love their chemistry and dynamics, you genuinely believe that they would both pay the ultimate price so that the other could live.
We’ll undoubtedly get more films in this shared universe and hopefully more Ed and Lorraine, this film is set in 1981, Ed Warren passed away in 2006 so there’s still plenty of time and more stories to tell. It’ll be interesting if they can ever hit the heights of the first Conjuring movie, or Annabelle: creation (the best 2 in my opinion), but I’ll look forward to any and all future releases regardless.
A solid 8.5/10
W
Dead Mans Chest 