I sort of gave the original a pass since it had the calling card of 'based on a true story' and was decently acted. The acting in C2 isn't bad, but, this one is way too long and simply isn't scary. Sharp shocks and quick cut jolts aren't the same as a sense of dread. The original had that.

Director James Wan has been going on and on in the press about wanting to elevate and class up the horror genre. If he's truly serious about that, how about making a horror movie where every single shock cut ISN'T accompanied by loud percussion noises in surround? Just a few? Heck, how about having NO shock cuts at all next time around? The masters of the horror film will tell you that often times, dead silence is the most effective. I guess Wan felt that a few British accents was sufficient 'Class'. Further, Wan may try and pull a Coppola (DRACULA) and do a movie without ridiculous CGI effects. A couple of the sequences had decent momentum building up which were frankly ruined by CGI (that sofa flipping over looked like low budget cable TV stuff). Wan talks a good game, but he still relies far far too much on cheap tricks. Which is doubly frustrating since he has such a wealth of 'documented' material with the Warrens. Trust your story.

I'm not saying CONJURING 2 is terrible. But, despite a decent enough budget and capable actors, this is little more that a gussied up straight to VOD horror flick - or, back in the day, a Drive-In movie.