GOOD

Do not take for granted when this movie begins by saying it's about to tell you a malevolent horror story!

James Wan just has a way of introducing scares & frights in his films. From hanging of the wind chime to the creepy hide-and-clap game, you are slowly sucked into the action environment. He for sure, knows how to utilize the sound effects to his advantage. Immaculate sound engineering ensures you hear even the slightest crank on the wooden planks with amplified silences. The background music clasps onto your bones like a dark spirit too! With all these in summon, the director builds suspense, scene to scene, room to room, one breath at a time.

Most of the scenes written are quite skillful in hinting the imminence of danger! It plays with your common fear of legs being pulled while sleeping. Discovery of the cellar is not a coincidence, and so is the iconic 'clap' scene at the barrage underneath!

When the Warrens involve themselves into this mystery, the rate of activity starts to pick up. Investigation, gathering evidences & proofs are the best parts of the film. Ed's (Patrick Wilson) teachings about the three stages of demonic activity is apprise. Humor's not excluded with Brad (John Brotherton) taking a pee mistaken for paranormal sighting. Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) dropping down the closet hole into the cellar room reveals Plot Point 2 before plunging your heart out for a minute. Watch out for one of the most terrifying exorcism sequences captured on celluloid at the resolution!

The screenwriters also knew, if the narrative strolls around the haunted house for the rest of the picture, things will start to get stale. So, they cut away by moving to the Warren's from time to time. They gave the demonologists a backstory, rather than just making them appear at the climax alone to solve the case. And it pays off really well at the end of film, with an incredible chance to use Annabelle, the haunted doll!

The minuses in terms of scene context are, however:

  • Why does Drew (Shannon Kook) have to shout out loud when he found April (Kyla Deaver)?

  • Lorraine Warren may be a gifted clairvoyant, but one's not sure how far it's possible for her to extract memories from a photograph just by a touch. If she is capable to do so, she could have easily detected that Carolyn Perron's (Lili Taylor) possessed in a split second!

  • In order to not conclude the story miles earlier by pushing the family to move away from the house, the script places an implausible 'latching on them wherever they go' reason. This is what we call, a convenience.

  • There should have been more visual explanations to point out why the mum was the most psychologically vulnerable one among the lot.

  • The loud noise caused by the photo frames break at the stairway would have definitely woken up the kids, right?

  • A couple of coincidences in character appearances to save the day takes one off the storytelling.

  • One particular dialogue becomes a cheesy one-liner, as a result of uttering it at the wrong place & time.

[uncode_share layout="multiple" bigger="yes" separator="yes" css_animation="bottom-t-top" animation_delay="200"]