The Conjuring 2 is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan, and the third instalment in The Conjuring Universe. A sequel to 2013's The Conjuring, it stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprising their roles as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and dramatises the real-world Enfield Poltergeist case.
Plot
Set in 1977, the film follows the Warrens as they travel from the United States to Enfield, North London, to assist Peggy Hodgson, an overwhelmed single mother of four, after her second-eldest daughter begins showing signs of demonic possession alongside reported poltergeist activity in the family home. As the Warrens attempt to help the family, they find themselves targeted by the entity themselves.
Production
Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson signed on to reprise their roles in mid-2013, with James Wan confirmed as returning director in October 2014 after initial hesitation over taking on the sequel. The screenplay, credited to Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, David Leslie Johnson, and Wan, drew directly on the real Enfield Poltergeist investigation, alongside references to the Warrens' other most famous case, the Amityville haunting. Maurice Grosse, the case's real-world principal investigator, is portrayed in the film by Simon McBurney.
Reception
The Conjuring 2 received largely positive reviews and was a substantial box office success, grossing over $320 million worldwide against a reported $40 million production budget. Critics generally praised Wan's direction and the performances of Farmiga and Wilson, though some reviewers noted that the film's climactic act departs significantly from the real Enfield case into outright fiction. The film's success led directly to the 2018 spin-off The Nun, built around its demonic nun antagonist, Valak.
Relationship to the real case
The film is one of several dramatisations of the Enfield case, alongside Sky Living's 2015 miniseries The Enfield Haunting and Channel 4's 2007 documentary Interview with a Poltergeist. Unlike those earlier treatments, The Conjuring 2 frames the case through the Warrens as its central protagonists, a narrative choice not reflected in the real investigation, which was led in Britain by Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair of the Society for Psychical Research rather than the Warrens.