Despite the intriguing title, which echoes the cult franchise The Conjuring, this film has nothing to do with it. The original title translates as “Servants of Satan: Communion”. This option is much more informative, since the film was shot as a continuation of the horror “Servants of Satan”, released in 2017.
For a better understanding of the storylines, you should look at the previous part, which reveals in more detail the characters of the main characters and their life circumstances. You can figure it out in the course of watching this film, but familiarization with the previous part will greatly facilitate understanding of the nuances.
At the very beginning of the film, the plot is centered on a journalist who is brought to a cult site where a massacre has been committed. Due to the sensitive nature of the crime and the upcoming important international event, the country’s authorities are not interested in conducting an investigation. In a couple of hours, all the evidence will be destroyed, and the crime scene will look like nothing happened.
The policeman, horrified by what has happened, orders his journalist friend to be summoned so that he at least somehow covers what happened, even if there is no evidence of this. The servant of the law is sure that they are dealing not just with a psychopath, but with a real evil that can return and strike again. What happened does not lend itself to any logical explanation, unless, of course, we consider the fact that the dead cannot walk, and the murders are committed by ordinary people of flesh and blood. Something sinister happened here, which could not be the work of a simple psycho.
This is followed by a jump in time, after which the viewer is gradually introduced to the inhabitants of the high-rise building, where the main plot will unfold. The central place in the plot is occupied by the heroes of the previous film. Reenie and her family, having lost their mother and younger brother, decide to move to a safer place. So they find themselves in a high-rise building inhabited by a huge number of people, some of whom will take an active part in the further development of the plot. The heroes naively believe that nothing will threaten them surrounded by neighbors.
What is the point of the movie?
The whole film is structured in such a way as to keep the viewer in constant suspense. Maybe for avid fans of the genre, the film will not be so scary, but it definitely differs from the main series of horror films. There is a certain ominous atmosphere in the film, even in those moments when nothing should be happening. Ordinary scenes are disturbing. Interestingly, there are not many really frightening moments in the whole film, but the atmosphere itself leaves a psychological residue that makes you constantly wait for horror stories.
Another interesting feature of the film is that it does not have a pronounced hero. The viewer gets acquainted with a fairly large number of different characters, whose significance for the development of the plot is difficult to predict. This one creates additional intrigue, and also allows you not to create a binding with a specific character. The film gets goosebumps not because of what happens to one person or family, but because of the general atmosphere.
In addition, most often in horror films, the action takes place in an abandoned place or an old haunted house. In principle, the original painting “Servants of Satan” also had a similar scenario. Here everything is different. In the center of the plot is a whole high-rise building, which is inhabited by many people. This is also scary, because people are used to feeling safe among others. Being alone in a huge house without neighbors can be scary, even without ghosts and monsters. However, the high-rise building inherently evokes a sense of security, which the authors of the project successfully destroy, which makes the film especially scary.
The meaning of the film is not entirely unambiguous, but is actively intertwined with religious themes. It seems that the forces of evil have awakened to take those who should be there to hell, although it would be wrong to call these people bad. Small children die while collecting pennies in an elevator shaft. They argue about who found them first, and an elevator falls on top of them. Another girl finds herself surrounded by evil forces, from whom she hears that it is time for her to go to hell, where they are waiting for her, because she did everything exactly as it should be to get there.
There are many points indicating that people have attracted evil to themselves, even though it exists as an independent part of life. The mere fact that the high-rise building was built on a cemetery speaks volumes. The characters are trying to answer difficult philosophical questions about the origin of evil, the existence of God and the meaning of life. Prayer is not enough for salvation. No one understands how to deal with forces that existed long before they were born.
Religion, philosophy, moral values - all this is intertwined and combined into a single whole, frightening in its essence. Every person makes mistakes in life, but some of them can be fatal, such as the contract concluded by the father of the family several decades ago. As long as people adhere to the same strategies of behavior, the same habits and values from generation to generation, the forces of evil will never leave them alone.
Ending explanation
By the end of the film, the tension rises to the limit. The surviving small company, led by the Rini family, is trying to find a way out of the cursed building, but events are getting more and more terrible. Reenie finds a long-lost younger brother whose appearance among the dead raises serious suspicions.
The boy looks normal, but he can communicate exclusively in sign language, which is familiar to one of the characters from an old book found once in someone else’s suitcase. This is an unusual language that keeps secrets, like a mysteriously appeared child. He is somehow involved in what is happening and calls on more and more new evil forces.
When the situation becomes hopeless, the building is filled with mountains of corpses, ghosts and minions of the devil, the journalist who was shown a couple of times throughout the film reappears. He has more information than all the inhabitants of the building, and helps the survivors to escape.
According to his story, the father of the Rini family once concluded a diabolical contract that destroyed his whole life and the lives of many other people. Their family is not the only one. But where this evil came from, what it wants and when it will return is not at all clear. The journalist promises to tell everything.
According to this ending, we can safely assume that the authors of the project are planning a sequel. In fact, the denouement leads to more questions instead of any answers. After the survivors leave, a couple of young people come to one of the apartments of the sinister building. This is exactly the apartment where the heroes found old photographs, shedding at least a little light on what is happening. From the conversation of this couple, we can conclude that they are not quite ordinary people, or rather, not people at all. They talk sweetly and express their regrets that they were absent last night.
At the last moment, the viewer’s attention is drawn to an old photograph hanging on the wall, which depicts this couple, looking exactly the same as now. This defies logic, since several decades have passed since the snapshot was taken. There is no speculation as to who these two might be, but the answers will most likely be in the next movie. The authors of the script left an intrigue at the end, which will definitely make you wait for the continuation.
