FILM · 2016 · USA
The Conjuring 2
36 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (36)
- #001
While promoting the film in June 2016, star Vera Farmiga was still suffering from a swollen lymph node she developed during shooting because of the intense screaming she had to do. Technical difficulties sometimes forced her to perform up to 50 takes in a row, all of which included her screams.
- #002
The rest of the Hodgson family visited the set. Frances O'Connor, who plays their late mother, refused to meet them because she feared it would affect her performance.
- #003
All scenes featuring the nun were added during reshoots, and the original design of a dark demon was replaced with one with horns. This was because director James Wan wanted to expand the story of Lorraine Warren's faith being questioned, so he designed the demon to resemble a holy icon. The original design can be seen at the end of the climax, when the demon is defeated.
- #004
On the first day of shooting, a priest was brought in to bless the set.
- #005
Some claimed that the real Janet Hodgson was a skilled ventriloquist or had the power to manipulate voices, and she admitted to faking some of the events. In an interview with The Telegraph, she revealed that about two percent of hauntings are fake.
- #006
Patrick Wilson made his own song.
- #007
In the opening scene, in which the Warrens attend a séance at the Amityville Horror house, Lorraine wears a trench coat and a skirt. The costume was inspired by the outfit the real Lorraine Warren wore to a real-life séance during the Amityville case. She wore a copy of the outfit, down to the shape of her hair.
- #008
One real-life claim not included in the film was that the Hodgson children's toys were thrown around and were too hot to touch.
- #009
The ghost child Lorraine sees during her astral projection (at about 5 minutes) is based on the infamous Amityville photograph said to have been taken by professional photographer Gene Campbell, who was part of the team working with paranormal researchers Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren.
- #010
It achieved the biggest opening weekend gross for a horror film in three years. The previous film was The Conjuring (2013).
- #011
The Society for Psychical Research in England investigated the case long before the Warrens and classified it as "Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis." Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair at one point moved into the house and investigated the case for more than a year. The Warrens arrived and stayed only a few days.
- #012
The demon's name, "VALAK," appears in three places in the Warrens' home and is shown five times. The first (at about 33 minutes) is next to the kitchen window in colored cut-out letters, directly behind Ed Warren. The second is written in raised letters on the edge of the wooden kitchen counter, both made by their daughter. They are directly to Lorraine's right while she is at the breakfast table with Ed. You see them again while she is standing by the sink. The third location (at about 43 minutes) is the family room where Lorraine and her daughter are sitting. Large wooden letters are placed on two shelves of the bookcase. They also appear on the bracelet Judy made. They appear both during and after Lorraine's dream. VALAK becomes the name Lorraine gives the nun demon.
- #013
(At about 39 minutes) The scene in which Frances O'Connor's character is woken by the children's screams and drawers slam across the room was shot in a single take.
- #014
Unlike the original film, which was made in the hope of getting a PG-13 rating (though the studio and producers ultimately accepted the R the MPAA assigned), the sequel was both written and directed with the intention of actually receiving the R rating the MPAA gave it.
- #015
It is generally based on the Warrens' investigation of the Enfield haunting. Multiple different teams of researchers took part in this case, and Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair's investigation was dramatized as The Enfield Haunting (2015).
- #016
According to star Vera Farmiga, the real-life events at Enfield were the longest recorded case of paranormal poltergeist activity in history.
- #017
It takes place six years after the first film.
- #018
In real life, most people believe this haunting was a hoax carried out by the house's young girls, with the eldest able to create very deep voices for the "demon."
- #019
The women on the idol poster in the girls' bedroom are actress and model Joanna Lumley. The real Hodgson girls actually had a poster of her, as can be seen in the photographs featured in the end title sequence.
- #020
(At about 2 hours 5 minutes) On the shelf where Ed places the flash toy in the Warrens' artifact room is an upside-down golden skull, which he moves to the side. This skull is the sacred treasure that causes Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage's characters to swap bodies in the film Vice Versa (1988).
- #021
Madison Wolfe and Patrick Wilson had worked together in another film before. When they met again to read for this film, however, Wilson did not recognize her because she was using an English accent.
- #022
Madison Wolfe, who plays Janet, is actually an American who grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, and uses an English accent.
- #023
In the end title sequence, during the section mentioning the costume designers, there is a split-second frame showing the Annabelle doll.
- #024
The school featured in the film is actually two schools located side by side: Enfield Grammar School and Chace Girls' School on Enfield Town Market Place. Enfield Grammar is one of the oldest secondary schools in the United Kingdom, founded in 1558.
- #025
Lauren Esposito was cast in her role after a long search for an actress in the USA, the UK and Australia. It marks her first feature film.
- #026
Spin-offs of the first film were greenlit, such as Annabelle (2014) and its two follow-ups Annabelle: Creation (2017) and Annabelle Comes Home (2019). The films were set to focus on the origins of the film's two demons, the "Demon Nun" and the "Crooked Man," respectively titled The Nun (2018) and The Crooked Man (?). The character's popularity and the greenlighting of a spin-off featuring it prove that James Wan's decision to change his design of the Demon "Valak" from the original, more classic demon-horned creature design to a ghostly nun was a good one. Despite The Crooked Man being greenlit, James Wan later said that The Crooked Man had been shelved for reasons beyond his control, but that hopes remained of returning to it.
- #027
Internationally, the film opened in 44 markets in its opening weekend and had the best debut ever for a horror film in 26 countries, including Australia, Mexico, Brazil and all of Latin America. In the United States it had the biggest June opening for a horror film, surpassing the record previously held by The Purge (2013).
- #028
In both Conjuring films directed by James Wan, one of the Warrens is determined to keep investigating paranormal events, while the other decides it is time to take a break or stop being involved out of fear that the Warren who wants to continue will die. In The Conjuring (2013), Ed Warren asks Lorraine Warren to take a break from investigating because of the immense physical harm it has inflicted on her. In The Conjuring 2 (2016) the roles are reversed, and Lorraine is worried about investigating further cases because of a premonition that Ed will die in an accident.
- #029
Bonnie Aarons, who plays the demon Nun in The Nun (2018), also plays the same demon Nun role.
- #030
(Around 8 minutes) During the "London Calling" montage introducing the Enfield haunting, there are three shots of Piccadilly Circus. A supposed poster for Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), which was released while the film was being shot, has been added over it. This is a deliberate addition by the filmmakers, because given the types and ages of the buses and other vehicles in the image, the actual footage is much older and dates from the mid-1960s.
- #031
The second film deals with the Warrens having to help a haunted woman named Janet. The TV movie The Haunted (1991), now considered a lost "Conjuring" film, involved a woman named Janet Smurl being tormented by evil spirits. The Warrens also appear in that film, though they were obviously played by different actors at the time. This Smurl Haunting case was later turned into an actual "Conjuring" film with The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025).
- #032
The original screenplay was written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes based on a story by director James Wan. Eric Heisserer, writer of Final Destination 5 (2011), The Thing (2011) and Lights Out (2016) (the latter of which he produced with Wan), then did some uncredited script revisions on this draft, which was later rewritten by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Heisserer mainly changed some of the dialogue and named the conversation between Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Anita (Franka Potente) about demons being worse than people who create demonic deceptions as his favorite addition to make it to the screen.
- #033
(Around the 34th minute) Margaret can be heard listening to "Don't Give Up On Us Baby" sung by David Soul. The song reached number 1 in the United Kingdom for four weeks between January and February 1977. It also reached number 1 in the USA for one week in April 1977. He also appeared in Starsky and Hutch (1975). A large poster of Soul is displayed on the wall beside Margaret's bed.
- #034
To prevent her sleepwalking, Janet ties herself to the bed and immediately finds herself walking around the house outside the bed. In the Conjuring Universe, it is possible that Janet Hodgson can perform astral projection, like Josh Lambert and his son in the first two Insidious films directed by James Wan.
- #035
Frances O'Connor's appearance resembles a young Barbara Hershey, who starred in The Entity (1982), another horror film about supernatural forces. Hershey played Lorraine Lambert, Josh Lambert's mother, in Insidious (2010). Josh Lambert is played by Patrick Wilson, who plays Ed Warren in this film.
- #036
Lauren Esposito's debut.
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