Although it may be the second “Conjuring” movie, this is actually the third movie of the Conjuring universe after “Annabelle”. The Conjuring 2 is a two hour long horror movie, which is really long by horror standards. It received an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and generally scared the lights out of anyone who went to see it. I firmly believe it remains in my Top 5 scariest movies of all time for a number of different reasons.

Since the movie is two hours long, it allowed James Wan (director) to stretch scenes out to where they became almost excruciatingly tense, and it felt like the scare could come from anywhere on the screen. Wan knows where people normally expect the scare to come from, having done many horror films before this, and uses THAT to his advantage too. Sometimes the scare will come as a loud sound and no visual. Sometimes the scare will come from a startling visual and no sound. Sometimes the scare is hidden in the dark like the GIF above, and sometimes the horror is standing right in front of you and you can’t do anything but stare back.

This movie introduced a character that I believe is easily just as terrifying as Pennywise the Clown or Jason Vorheez. The Nun is the character. In the movie it is a demon named Valak, but it’s easier and much more fun to just call it The Nun. She haunts the main protagonist all through the movie and was scary enough to get her own origin movie. Gotta say though, it really wasn’t any good.

With the extra long running time, and the superb use of camera techniques and sound design, as well as the introduction of such a horrifying character as the Nun, The Conjuring 2 is a fantastic horror movie. It is a guaranteed fright for anyone who dares watch it, and the best part is you don’t have to torture yourself to watch the first Conjuring movie before it to understand what’s going on. Overall, I give this movie a 9/10