The Conjuring 2 appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. As expected, the movie presented strong visuals.
At all times, sharpness seemed very good. Any instances of softness remained negligible, as the film appeared accurate and concise. Jagged edges and moiré effects didn’t mar the presentation, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.
In terms of palette, Conjuring 2 went with a heavily teal orientation. Splashes of other hues appeared on occasion, but they remained in a distinct minority in this strong blue affair. Within stylistic choices, the hues seemed well-depicted. Blacks were dark and dense, and low-light shots gave us good clarity. I felt pleased with this impressive transfer.
As for the Dolby Atmos audio - which downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1 on my system - it offered a fairly typical horror movie soundscape. This meant a lot of creepy atmosphere and occasional “jolt moments”. Along with good stereo music, the soundfield was able to open things up in a satisfying manner that embellished the story; the mix didn’t dazzle, but it worked fine.
Audio quality was always good. Music appeared full and rich, while effects demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy. Speech was natural and distinctive throughout the film. Again, this wasn’t a heavily active track, but it made sense for the story.
Most of the set’s extras come from its five featurettes. Crafting The Conjuring 2 runs 10 minutes, nine seconds and includes notes from director James Wan, screenwriters David Leslie Johnson, Chad Hayes and Cary Hayes, producers Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, director of photography Don Burgess, production designer Julie Berghoff, character inspiration Janet Hodgson Winter, and actors Frances O’Connor, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Bob Adrian, and Vera Farmiga. “Crafting” looks at story/characters, cinematography and production design, Wan’s impact on the shoot, and related domains. A few nuggets emerge – with some good footage from the shoot – but most of the piece seems forgettable.
Next comes The Enfield Poltergeist: Living the Horror. In this 12-minute, 46-second piece, we get info from Janet Hodgson Winter, Chad and Cary Hayes, Cowan, Wan, Johnson, Farmiga, Safran, character inspirations Lorraine Warren and Margaret Hodgson Nadeem, photographer Graham Norris and actor Franka Potente. “Horror” looks at the real-life events that get depicted in the film. Though brief, we get a decent overview of the subject matter.
During the six-minute, 44-second Creating Crooked, we hear from Johnson, Safran, Cowan, Wan, Farmiga, Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, Wilson, makeup effects artist Justin Raleigh, visual effects producer Ariel Shaw, and actor Benjamin Haigh. The reel looks at the design and execution of the “Crooked Man” character. This becomes another decent but unexceptional featurette.
Hollywood’s Haunted Stage lasts five minutes, eight seconds and features paranormal investigator Johnny Matook. We get a tour of a supposedly spirit-infested set. “Stage” buys into its theme whole hog and lacks substance.
Finally, we get The Sounds of Scary. During the seven-minute featurette, we find material from composer Joseph Bishara, scoring engineer/mixer Chris Spilfogel, and orchestrator Dana Niu. They provide some thoughts about the movie’s music. The featurette provides a smattering of thoughts but not much substance.
Four Deleted Scenes fill a total of six minutes, 31 seconds. Two focus on supernatural areas, while the other two illustrate the impact on the family’s day-to-day life. On their own, the clips seem decent, but because the movie runs too long as it is, I’m glad they got the boot.
The disc opens with an ad for Lights Out. No trailer for Conjuring 2 appears here.
Derivative and slow-paced, The Conjuring 2 fails to make much of an impact. It comes with a decent source story but it seems too long and too predictable to become anything involving. The Blu-ray brings us excellent picture and satisfactory audio plus a smattering of bonus materials. Conjuring 2 ends up as a mediocre horror effort.