That scene—Ed strumming “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as the house crumbles—was mocked in 2016. By 2021, fans rightly called it the most emotional, unique exorcism scene ever filmed. Looking back from the perspective of a world deep into pandemic streaming, The Conjuring 2 offered something the 2021 sequel didn’t: patience .
By 2021, the horror landscape had changed. We had seen Hereditary ’s grief-stricken dread, A Quiet Place ’s gimmick-driven tension, and The Invisible Man ’s high-tech reinvention. But five years after its summer release, James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 didn’t just hold up—it towered over the franchise it spawned. The Conjuring 2 -2016 2021
Wan takes nearly an hour before the full possession kicks in. He lets the Crooked Man rhyme, lets the chair stack itself, lets Janet Hodgson (a terrifyingly good Madison Wolfe) speak in that guttural old-man voice for minutes before anyone believes her. That scene—Ed strumming “Can’t Help Falling in Love”