THE CONJURING 2 is a follow up to the surprise haunted house hit and another outing for psychic investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, as played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Sadly, I'm no fan of these films, finding the direction overblown and the reliance on cliches and pedestrian plotting to be completely off-putting. This unconvincing sequel transports the action to England, where the investigators are shoehorned into the famous Enfield Poltergeist case. They end up bringing their old baggage with them, so this is more about evil nuns and stupid spirits than any attempts at realism. The over-the-top fantasy hauntings involving Farmiga's character never gel with the icy chills of the poltergeist case, and it's one of those Hollywood films that manages to make all of the British accents ring hollow and false. By the end, it's devolved into yet another chased-around-by-CGI climax, just like in the INSIDIOUS trilogy, and my interest had long since waned.

Nothing authentic or believable in this comedy of errors.

James Wan's not-so-subtle scares are bolstered by the chemistry between Wilson and Farmiga. You'd think the love story embedded within his horror would be a tonal nightmare, but even the musical number before the final act plays like a touching romance story and makes the Marilyn Manson-esque Nun all the scarier.

I was hoping that the sequel would improve on the 2013 original. Sadly, this is not the case. The Conjuring 2 follows a very similar structure to that of the original, but where the original avoided most problems that plague other horrors films, the sequel stumbles onto most of them.The sequel makes two significant errors. Poor child actors and revealing far too much about the spooky entity. The first error, poor child actors, was avoided entirely by the original. The second, inexplicably, has the least capable child actor's character (Billy) stutter throughout the film. Completely unnatural and an unnecessary burden on the actor (and audience). B-B-Biscuits? (were the biscuits haunted?).The second error, turns the film into somewhat of a comedy at times. We learn far too much about the deceased old man. "My house" always cracks me up, surely that's not meant to be scary? Hoping the third movie is better.