James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 will continue to explore the legacies of Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), but the sequel will only be touching on the duo’s most famous paranormal case: the Amityville Horror. This may strike some as strange, given the aforementioned fame and that the first film teased the story, but there’s a very simple explanation as to why the director avoided it. He basically thinks it’s been done to death.
I had the chance to quickly speak with James Wan during a press line at WonderCon in Downtown Los Angeles last weekend, and it was while discussing his upcoming horror movie that he explained his choice of the Enfield Poltergeist over the Amityville horror. Said the director,
We actually even hinted at the end of the first movie, we teased that they were going to investigate a certain house out that way. We knew we wanted to have the Warrens go and tackle the Amityville case, but I also didn’t want to make another Amityville movie for the entire film, because we’ve seen a bazillion [versions] of that story, right, and I don’t think I have anything new to tell.
Of course, The Conjuring 2 is still recognizing the existence of the famous case, as seen in the main trailer that was recently released:
The story of the Enfield Poltergeist is different from the Amityville case in many ways, from the fact that the family was headed by a single mother to the fact that it was a child feeling the effects of the supposed supernatural force. That being said, James Wan also discussed that there are some similarities between the events that helped the England-set tale get adapted – including the looming question of whether or not everything is just being made up. He explained,
So we found then the Enfield story, which is in a lot of ways very similar to Amityville in that both cases are extremely publicized. Both cases have their fair share of skeptics and people believe that they are hoaxes, and we actually talk about that. We actually deal with that. I don’t think you can get around not talking about that. You’ve got to acknowledge it. It’s such a big part and so we make that part of our story. And it’s in the trailers as well, about whether or not this family in England is making it up or if it’s really happening.
Stay tuned for more of our coverage of The Conjuring 2, and get ready for the film’s release in theaters on June 10th.
