This Article Originally Ran On Blumhouse.com
Not long after arriving at the home of the Hodgson family, Ed and Lorraine Warren go about investigating the supernatural hauntings in their own ways. Lorraine sits with Janet, letting the young girl know that she is not alone. Ed checks out the house while talking to the mother and learning more about the family in whole.
What Ed learns is that the Hodgsons are a family dealing with a lot of problems. Money is tight. The youngest son is dealing with bullies at school. Janet recently got in trouble for smoking. Worst of all, the dad is out of the picture, and he took all the music with him. Literally, he took all the records.
The Warrens head out for a bit, and return to the Hodgsons with some new records, including a bit of Elvis. When the record player doesn’t work, Ed takes it on himself to grab a guitar and does a solid Elvis impersonation, crooning “Can’t Help Falling In Love”.
This moment, where the Hodgson children sit at the feet of Ed Warren as he sings to them, bringing this family their first moment of peace and happiness in who knows how long, is the best moment in THE CONJURING 2. Even more, it is the most important moment in the movie.
It won’t be the moment that most people walk out of the theater talking about, but it is the moment that allows the moments people will be talking about to work. Without this moment, and others like it that are sprinkled throughout the movie, the scares wouldn’t be so scary. Through two films, James Wan and the Hayes brothers have shown us, in the Warrens, a couple who are clearly in love and, maybe more importantly, a couple we would want to spend an evening with.
The Warrens are good people, who have a good sense of humor and actually want to help others. We see them interacting with frightened children and scared, exhausted parents (or single mother as is the case in this film) and honestly caring. Much of the praise for this has to go to Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who have such amazing chemistry together that I think many of us would happily watch them in countless more movies. They so easily sell the love and compassion of the Warrens that you can’t help but fall for them.
Like I said, it isn’t just in the Elvis scene. Watch the bit between Farmiga’s Lorraine and Maddison Wolfe’s Janet as they sit on the swings. Farmiga tells a story that many actors couldn’t pull off convincingly. She talks about seeing an angel when she was a child and her face, her eyes, fill with a mix of hope because she knows that there is good in the world, and sorrow because she knows the kind of evil this poor girl has been dealing with. Lorraine uses her skills to make this sad, frightened, lonely girl feel a little less alone in the world.
Not long after that comes a scene between Wilson’s Ed and Janet. Here, Ed is fixing a dripping faucet which serves two great purposes - the first is that Ed looks for ways to help others, even if it is even as small as tightening a lug nut. The second is that, in an age of GHOST HUNTERS, many of us into the paranormal know that many “ghosts” are really plumbing issues - they show the Warrens explaining away a haunting in the first CONJURING with this concept - here we see Ed looking to take away those possibilities. More to it though, is the conversation between Ed and Janet. Where Lorraine helped Janet feel a little less alone, Ed’s story about something hiding under his bed when he was a child, and his standing up to it, helps Janet feel a little stronger, a little more confident.
These moments, the little pieces that help us better know the Warrens, are what make the scares work so well in THE CONJURING 2. We feel, deep in our guts, concern for Ed and Lorraine when things get real rough for them. I know that I was sitting with my knees up by my chin when Ed was hanging out the window. Logically, I knew Ed wouldn’t die, but emotionally, I was looking at someone I care about in danger. That is the power of story, the power of film.
I have to say that, in my opinion, the first CONJURING faltered in making us feel connected to the Warrens. In the first film, the emotional connection is still present, but it lies with the Perron family. The Warrens come in and they are great, but we never really get to see them as people, only as heroes. Here, in CONJURING 2, we see them as human. We see Ed get angry when a skeptic on TV questions his wife’s abilities. To get back to the Elvis bit, watch Farmiga in that scene. She smiles, a smile filled with love. Then, as she watches her husband, she becomes filled with concern - she remembers that there is an evil showing her his death. While Ed’s character moments, much like his character, are straightforward and hard to miss, Lorraine is a more internal character, her moments happen in the eyes. Between both Ed and Lorraine, we witness a well written, well directed, and well acted relationship.
Would THE CONJURING 2 be a good movie without these character moments? Sure. Would it be memorable? I don’t think so. There are plenty of great haunted house movies that come out every year that we enjoy, but never really think much about after we see it - THE CONJURING and now THE CONJURING 2 don’t fall into that category. People look forward to spending time with the Warrens because James Wan and his team have created something we don’t often see in horror - a franchise about the heroes. The Warrens, a real life couple that has many, we’ll call them controversial, stories that can be told have been made into silver screen legends through a perfect mixture of atmosphere, scares, and heart.