a review of 招魂4

HOOPTOBER XII NIGHT TWO: I finally caught up with the previous CONJURING movie (also directed by Michael Chaves) a few weeks ago, just in time to catch this one in theaters. Taken together, the impression I got from both movies was of a series that no longer felt like playing with the essential tension between the wiggy paranormal happenings and the entertainingly quirky squareness of the main characters. If the first two entries were basically charming throwbacks to '70s supernatural thrillers that were occasionally punctuated by soapy family drama, the last two are kind of the reverse: Dull throwback melodrama occasionally punctuated by unimaginative jump scares and music stings. The opening expository crawl promises that the events of this film will fundamentally rip the Warren family apart, but the actual crisis here (that their grown college-age daughter who also has psychic visions is being targeted by demons) is depicted and resolved in such a perfunctory manner that it barely registers as dramatic stakes. Wilson and Farmiga are great in this as always, and both still seem to be gamely walking the tightrope between sincerity and camp in their performances. If this is indeed the finale of the main CONJURING series, I think they can go out having successfully put their stamp on these characters.