Continuing to nurture its horror property into a bona fide franchise, New Line Cinema will be hoping to recapture the spine-chilling essence of 2013’s The Conjuring – not to mention its impressive box office turnover – with upcoming follow-up, The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist.
Horror sequels tend to get a bad rap for regurgitating an overly familiar set-up, thereby failing to induce the tangible nerve-shredding terror that helped make their predecessors so special (read: The Exorcist II: The Heretic), but what lends New Line’s The Conjuring 2 the benefit of the doubt is the fact that James Wan is returning at the helm, and he recently took the film to London.
Sharing a new batch of set photos via Instargam, Wan teased the period setting that the director will be recreating for The Enfield Poltergeist, which is based on a the purported demonic possession that afflicted two young girls in a small English town known as Enfield. Setting out to top the rather brilliant original, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga will return as real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and though today’s images appear rather quaint and easy on the eye, we’re betting that James Wan and Co. are cooking up a whole new breed of horror in time for 2016.
Taking the gorgeous #Marylebone Station back in time to seventies London. Beautiful Victorian architecture. #theconjuring2 A photo posted by James Wan (@creepypuppet) on
Sandwiched in between Furious 7 and Warner Bros. Aquaman standalone feature, The Conjuring 2 is very much acting as a palette cleanser for James Wan – a chance for the director to retreat back to his horror roots before taking the reins of another high-profile blockbuster.
It’s due to open on June 10, 2016.