Following a disastrous experience in Amityville, Ed and Lorraine Warren (once more played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) have more or less called it quits on the paranormal investigation business. That is, until they get word of a haunting in the small British town of Enfield, where a family is being tormented the spirit of their house's previous owner. The Warrens quickly emerge from their 10-Minute Retirement and agree to help the family. Throughout all of this, however, Lorraine finds herself tormented by an entity of her own, a mysterious demonic nun...
A third Conjuring installment, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, was released on June 4, 2021. A Spin-Off Prequel, The Nun, was released in 2018, while a second spinoff, The Crooked Man, fell into Development Hell.
The Conjuring 2 contain examples of:
- The '70s: The film is set in 1977.
- Abusive Parents: Ed's father may have been this, judging from what little Ed tells us about him.
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: There is the solemn scene where Lorraine comforts Janet over her psychic ability. Ed's guitar show-off is happier, but no less solemn.
- Agent Mulder: Maurice Grosse, who immediately believes the Hodgsons' case even when others, including the Warrens, are skeptical. He also gives the much-needed Ironic Echo comment to the Warrens near the end before the case is (apparently) dropped.
- Agent Scully: Psychologist Anita Gregory doesn't believe the Hodgsons' haunting (as she did in real life), thinking that the children are lying for publicity. She even shows evidence that Janet is faking the whole thing about throwing the furniture, which in truth is really faked, because Janet doesn't want the Warrens to get involved further. However, this causes the film's Darkest Hour (see below).
- Astral Projection: Lorraine is revealed to possess this, thanks to her psychic powers. It allows her to access recollections of memories.
- Bait-and-Switch: The first movie teases an adaptation of the infamous Amityville case as a Sequel Hook to serve as the basis for the entire next movie, only for the actual sequel to treat it as something of a footnote to the main plot.
- Big Bad: Bill Wilkins, the Enfield Poltergeist, is introduced as the mastermind behind the horror. But it's actually the demon Valak who's really behind everything.
- Brick Joke: Early on, the washing machine in the basement breaks suddenly and violently, which seemingly has no influence on the rest of the plot aside from showing that spooky things are about to go down. Much later into the movie, we see the entire area has been completely flooded.
- British Teeth: Averted, surprisingly. While real Janet did have considerably large teeth at the time and Madison Wolffe wore fake teeth to depict a more convincing portrayal, her teeth in the film still looks fairly realistic instead of looking exaggeratedly big.
- Casting Gag: You'd never recognize her under the heavy makeup in both roles, but actress Bonnie Aarons (who plays Valak the Demon Nun) is no stranger to playing a Humanoid Abomination.
- Chekhov's Gun: Lorraine's Bible. She wrote Valak's name on it during her Nightmare Sequence earlier in the film.
- Christianity is Catholic: The Catholic Church sends the Warrens to investigate a case in London, England affecting a family that gives no indication at all of being Catholic.
- Christmas Songs: The film teaches you that should you ever hear "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", run like hell. Because, otherwise, Valak will come and get you.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Lorraine's visions of the future are what allow the Big Bad to be defeated, by revealing to her its True Name, which she then uses to banish it to Hell.
- Coming of Age Story: Played with. In real life, Janet just got her first period around the time of the hauntings and many theorists believe it has something to do with the hauntings. While the film doesn't reference any of this, it does feature scenes that indicate Janet's maturing, such as when she's talking about a boy with her friend and her slight interest in smoking.
- Continuity Nod
- One of Ed's paintings is a sketch of the Perrons' house from the first film, complete with the tree and the noose where Bathsheba hanged herself. In fact, it's the exact same as the page image as shown here, except hand drawn.
- The Warrens' basement collection also features the music box which formerly belonged to the Perrons, and of course Annabelle.
- The vision Lorraine had which caused her to shut herself in her room for eight days, mentioned but never revealed in the first film, is not only mentioned but also revealed here, and it is Ed being killed by Valak.
- Cool Big Sis: Margaret is shown to be nurturing to all of her younger siblings. Janet is also seen particularly close with Billy, such as when she carries him on her back when they came home from school, when she teaches him to sing the nursery "The Crooked Man", and when she hugs him after Janet is reunited with the rest of her siblings.
- Creepy Child: Janet becomes this whenever she is possessed by ghosts.
- Cry into Chest: After seeing the visions of what happened at the Amityville house, Lorraine is so traumatized that she crumples into her husband's arms and cries into his chest.
- Darkest Hour: Just when you think that Janet's haunting couldn't get any worse, Professor Gregory arrives to show the Warrens evidence that Janet is faking the haunting. When the Warrens tell Peggy about this and the fact that the Vatican would shut the case down should they receive the video, Peggy angrily shoos them away. The haunting promptly becomes worse when Janet physically injures Margaret and then barricades the house from the others. Thankfully, the Warrens quickly realize that the haunting is indeed real and, if believed, is even worse than they thought.
- Deadly Distant Finale: It's mentioned that, forty years after the incident, Peggy dies in the same chair that Bill passed on in.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Big Bad is Valak, the President of Hell according to Ars Goetia.
- Demonic Possession: Janet is possessed by Bill Wilkins and Valak.
- Demoted to Extra: Drew Thomas, the Warrens' assistant, only appears in the opening scene during the Amityville case and is absent for the rest of the movie.
- Disappeared Dad: Peggy Hodgson's husband abandoned the family to start another life with a woman from around the corner, with whom he already has twins. On top of that, he is a deadbeat who is not providing child support and never shows up, even as his children are being put through hell.
- Dragged Off to Hell: By using its true name, Lorraine is able to banish Valak to Hell.
- The Dragon: Bill Wilkins is revealed to be an unwilling one to Valak.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Lorraine successfully banishes Valak to Hell and releases Bill Wilkins' soul from its grasp, saving the Hodgsons in the process.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Each of the Warrens has one of these that contributes to saving the day:
- When Ed drops some of the tapes of the recordings they made in the house, he realizes that each of the recordings has a part of the message from Bill Wilkins about what is really going on.
- Lorraine has one when she realizes that she has in fact written Valak's name in her Bible ever since her encounter with her earlier.
- Everybody Lives: Unless you count the ending text,note nobody who is not already dead from the start is killed off in the film.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: The Nottinghams have one. Unlike the first film, the dog gets to live to the end.
- Evil Old Folks: Bill Wilkins ...isn't. As it turns out, he is merely commanded by Valak to haunt Janet. Bill himself just wants to pass on to the afterlife after seeing that all of his family had gone away.
- False Friend: As revealed in a deleted scene only, Camilla revealed herself as this towards Janet all along.
- Fate Worse than Death: Bill Wilkins' spirit can't move on to the Afterlife and is Forced into Evil by Valak.
- Fighting a Shadow: Valak can't truly be killed; it can only be banished to where it comes from: Hell.
- Forced into Evil: Bill Wilkins bears no ill will against the Hodgsons, but is forced to torment them, and Janet in particular, by the powerful demon Valak.
- Foreshadowing: Unlike his interview with Maurice and the TV crews, where he's pretty much a Large Ham, Bill Wilkins often pauses and even sounds hesitating in his interview with Ed. It's possible that he was contemplating to tell Ed the truth, but was prevented from doing so by Valak.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Inverted. Valak assumes the form of a nun specifically as a mockery of the Warrens' Catholic faith because it knows it will make them uncomfortable.Lorraine: It took a blasphemous form to attack my faith!
- For the Evulz: While Valak may have grudges towards the Warrens for banishing evil spirits, it has none towards the Hodgsons. Maybe, just like what it said through Bill Wilkins' mouth, it simply likes to hear them scream.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus/Foreshadowing: The identity of the Big Bad can actually be spotted in the Warrens' house long before Lorraine herself realizes it much later. Pay attention to the bookcase when Lorraine is sleeping on the couch and the bracelets that Judy made on the floor. Then also take note of the papers placed near the window in Ed's work room. All of them spell out "VALAK".
- Gender Flip: Valak is usually depicted as a male in demonology. However, it is known as the "Demon Nun" in the credits, and is played by Bonnie Aarons, who is a woman. Although, see A Form You Are Comfortable With.
- Gilligan Cut:Ed: (referring to fixing the broken pipe in the basement) That's all right. I mean, how bad can it be?(cut to the basement, which gets flooded up to knee-length)Ed: Bloody hell.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Apparently, smoking is bad if you are a teenager who doesn't know much, but good if you are a single mother who has the stress of four children rested upon you.
- Happily Married: Ed and Lorraine are still just as devoted to each other as they were in the first film.
- Haunted House: The film features the ghost of an elderly man who wants to return to his family in the Hodgsons' house, which once belonged to his, only to realize that all of them have long gone. While it is implied at first that he haunts the house because he doesn't want anyone to claim it, it is revealed later on that the old man wants to move on, but is prevented from doing so by Valak.
- Holy Burns Evil: Bill Wilkins can't resist crosses. Valak, on the other hand, is not only resistant, but also can flip them upside down just to mess with the protagonists.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday / An Ass-Kicking Christmas: The main storyline takes place during Advent and the Christmas season.
- Humanoid Abomination: Valak manifests into the form of a Nun with chalk-white skin and Black Eyes of Evil.
- I Know Your True Name: Knowing the name of a demon will automatically make them weaker than you. Once Lorraine finds out that the demon who haunts her and Janet is called "Valak", she pronounces the name as part of her banishment, which works successfully.
- Impairment Shot: Ed is scalded in the eyes by a bursting steam pipe in the final act, forcing him to continue his search for Janet while half-blind.
- Improbable Falling Save: Ed catching Janet out the window is within the realm of possibility, but Lorraine catching them both isn't. Even without Janet, Ed has at least 20 pounds on Lorraine.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: The film somehow distorts "This Old Man" (and the similar rhyme "The Crooked Man") into a thing for everyone to dread at.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: An inhuman example. Despite appearing in the form of a nun, Valak is never referred to with feminine pronoun. This is to emphasize how inhuman its nature really is. Also notable in this case since in the previous movie, the witch ghost Bathsheba is still referred with feminine pronouns.Bill Wilkins: It wants [Janet] so badly. It almost has her.
Lorraine: The demon's name gives us power over it. - Jerkass:
- Peggy's ex-husband. To wit, he abandons his family, starts a new one with a woman who lived around the corner, hasn't paid child support for his 4 kids in months, doesn't lift a finger to help when his children start being brutalized by a poltergeist, and he took the family's record collection with him when he left.
- Anita Gregory comes across as this pretty often, especially since there are hints of classism in her arguments against the Hodgsons (namely that the haunting is a ploy to get better housing from the government).
- Kids Are Cruel: A boy named Peter in the school insults Billy's Speech Impediment and calls Janet lesbo for some reason.
- Literal Metaphor: When Peggy tells Ed Warren that her ex-husband took the music from their lives when he left, she is not using a figure of speech, the guy took the record collection with him.
- Living Drawing: In Lorraine's dream, Valak locks her in a room and first appears to her as a shadow before charging towards Lorraine while holding and roaring through Ed's painting of it.
- Meaningful Echo: "I can't lose you" reappears after initially featuring in the first film.
- Medium Blending: Subverted. Many presumed that the Crooked Man was made possible by means of stop-motion animation, but the character was actually played by a real actor.
- Never My Fault: Camilla was the one who gave Janet the spirit board which seemingly led to her family being haunted, but in a deleted scene only after the Hodgsons' haunting becomes publicly known, she publicly shamed Janet for being a witch who cursed her own family and splashed red paint on her, never thinking about that she is the one who gave the board to her in the first place that led to her ex-friend's family's haunting.
- Noodle People: The Crooked Man, which turns out to be one of Valak's forms. Holy hell.
- No-Sell: Valak is resistant against Holy Burns Evil. It's also able to block Lorraine's ability to psychically detect its presence (at first).
- Nuns Are Spooky: Dear goodness, Valak.
- Oh, Crap!: Valak has one when Lorraine reveals she knows its name and can thus banish it back to Hell.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted to hell.
- There are no less than three characters named Margaret: Margaret "Peggy" Hodgson, the matriarch of the Hodgson family; another Margaret Hodgson, a daughter of the former Margaret; and Margaret "Peggy" Nottingham, a neighbor of the former two. And yes, the two Peggys are always called by that, even to each other.
- Also, one of children is named Billy while the ghost that haunts the family is named Bill.
- In real life, Janet shares her name with Maurice Grosse's deceased daughter. Said daughter is only mentioned indirectly, but that doesn't exclude the possibility that she is also named Janet.
- Janet and Johnny are technically variants of the same name.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Maurice mentions to Lorraine that he lost his daughter one year prior. This is Truth in Television, and guess what his daughter's name is? Janet.
- Pinned to the Wall: In the final act when Lorraine tries to save Ed and Janet, Valak lets out a demonic shriek that throws and pins her against the wall. Unfortunately for the demon, that didn’t stop her from taking him down.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: A large number of viewers commented on the "Stop Motion" used for the portrayal of the Crooked Man, unaware that the character was actually played by a real person, Spanish actor Javier Botet, an experienced performer in creature work, thanks to his unique proportions note . That unsettlingly jerky, stop-motion like movement? All done live on camera by Botet.
- The Reveal:
- It isn't the ghost of Bill Wilkins who haunts the Hodgsons. It isn't even a ghost at all. It's a demon, and its name is Valak.
- The vision during an exorcism that caused Lorraine's Heroic BSoD, as mentioned in the first film, is revealed to have been Valak tormenting her with a vision of Ed's death.
- Rewatch Bonus: Before the reveal, of the demon's true name, Valak, the name is shown several times in background shots of the Warren's house. One example is during the breakfast scene letters placed behind either Ed or Lorraine spell Valak, but are always slightly obscured. It happens again while Lorraine is reading the Bible (the letters appear on the bookshelf) and when her daughter is making necklaces (the letters on the necklaces spell Valak).
- Riddle for the Ages: Were the murders at the Amityville house supernatural? The Warrens never do find out because Lorraine's vision of the event is interrupted midway by a premonition of their future confrontation with Valak.
- Saved by Canon: Or, rather, by real life. Lorraine has been having visions of Ed's death at the hands of Valak for years, and, during the climax, the demon very nearly succeeds. Given that the real Ed Warren lived until 2006, it's safe to say that he's going to survive the film.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Happens to the constables summoned to the Hodgsons' house. Once they see right from their own eyes that a chair moves on its own, they leave the case immediately and instead report it to someone more knowledgeable.
- Sequel Escalation: The previous film had the Warrens confronting an evil ghost; now they're facing a demon hellbent on getting someone, anyone, killed.
- Sequel Goes Foreign: The Warrens travel from America to England in this sequel.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Peggy swears pretty often throughout the film. "Bloody" appears to be her favourite curse word.
- Speech Impediment: Billy has a stutter, which his schoolmates bully him for.
- Spirit World: While not one per se, Lorraine is capable of entering a memory of a place, which she uses to reenact the murders of the DeFeo family/the Amityville case. Unfortunately, she also experiences darker personal visions on it, such as seeing a vision of Ed being killed. Much later in the film, she enters it again to speak with Bill Wilkins and learn the true culprit of the Enfield haunting.
- Spooky Painting: Ed paints impressions of the spirits that he saw in his dreams, which are then hung on around his house. The latest one is a creepy nun, which turns out to be the demon who haunts the Hodgsons, Valak.
- That One Case: The film opens with the Warrens' case of the Amityville house, which they never manage to solve due to Lorraine freaking out over seeing an apparition of Valak killing Ed.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: The advertising for the film, particularly the first trailer and this poster
, seem to imply that Lorraine may not survive. In the film proper, it's Ed who gets this treatment via Lorraine's vision of his death. - Trauma Swing: Janet is sitting alone on a swing when Lorraine met her for the first time.
- Twisted Christmas: The haunting takes place around Christmastime.
- Undying Loyalty: Vic and Peggy Nottingham, the Hodgsons' neighbors who never falter in their support and help of the troubled family, even when the poltergeist attacks their own house and almost kills them with a thrown chimney front cover.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The movie implies that the Warrens' investigation of the Amityville house took place just before the Enfield poltergeist began manifesting. In reality, the Warrens visited Amityville in early March 1976, while the events at Enfield started happening in August of 1977 and the Warrens themselves didn't visit Enfield until 1978. Furthermore, the Warrens were only very tangentially related to the Enfield haunting.
- Wham Line:Bill: Help me! It won't let me go!
- Wham Shot: A shot showing the outside. Camera pans back inside a building, showing the two distinct windows of the famous haunted Amityville house.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out what happened to the spirit of Bill Wilkins. Presumably, after Valak was defeated, he may have been free to move on to the afterlife, but there is no confirmation either way.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Lorraine says this to Janet to counter her claim that being different makes her inferior to others.
- Your Mom: One of the bullies in the school insults Janet by calling her lesbo (lesbian) out of nowhere, only for her friend to defend her by responding to him, "What, you're talking about your mum?"
