Thankfully I did because Insidious
kicked my ass. It was suitably old school, didn’t showcase any graphic gore or
violence and was intensely frightening. It was a classically made scary movie
that worked despite its PG-13 rating and proved that buckets of blood weren’t
necessary when you knew just what it takes to really creep audiences out.
Although it wasn’t very original in the story department since it lifted entire
ideas and sequences right out of Poltergeist,
but it did so in a respectful way as sort of a love letter to the shockers of
days past. Insidious made horror movies
cool again the same way Scream did in
the 90s.
Two years later I won tickets to a free preview screening of
the sequel, Insidious: Chapter 2
(Q&A not included).
Picking up right where the first film ended, Renai (Rose
Byrne) must find a way to prove that her husband Josh (Patrick Wilson) has been
possessed by a murderous evil spirit that has been haunting him since he was a
child while dealing with a new malevolent ghostly apparition that has taken up
residence in their home.
When I said that the original film was a fun take on Poltergeist, believe me when I say that
this follow-up is a not-so-subtle rip-off of Poltergeist II: The Other Side with an ample side serving of The Shining. The problem is that it
comes off as plagiarism due to desperation instead of fanboy homage. I will not
go into the details as to why since it will give away quite a few spoilers.
There weren’t a whole lot of options left for writer Leigh
Whannell to expand upon given that the twist finale in the first film was just
that, a big twist to wring one final scare out of the material. The smart move
would have been to create a whole new set of characters and situations, but
instead he opted to continue the story. In the process he ended up backing
himself in a corner by having most of the story be a repeat of the original
film with long, pointless scenes of Renai walking around the house following
strange noises and watching her baby’s toys go crazy all the while creeping on
her (maybe) husband. Now that we as an audience know the rules established by
the first installment these scenes don’t come off as scary at all. They serve
as nothing but boring filler until the plot really gets moving in the last
half.
The last half is where I actually began to enjoy the film. We
start delving into the backstory of the spirit that has possessed Josh,
revelations about The Further are shown to great effect (time as we know it
doesn’t exist there making for some fun scenes) and the secondary characters
thankfully step up to the foreground to take our attention away from the lame
Renai/Josh plot. Whannell uses one of his tried and true plot devices that he
mined so well in the Saw films, and
that’s his fun way of backtracking to show the events of the first film in a
different light. It engaged me and held my interest more than the first half
did, especially after his clever way of working the awesome character of Elise
back into the fold.
Unfortunately his lame and anticlimactic finale once again
ruined all the goodwill it managed to generate and I was left unsatisfied and
underwhelmed as I walked out of the theater.
Director James Wan certainly has the directing chops to
wring good performances out of everyone despite Whannell’s sometimes clunky
dialogue. He also knows how to set up a shot to maximize its creep factor as
clearly evidenced in The Conjuring.
The sad thing is most of the time his idea of what’s scary this time around is
watching doors slowly creak open over and over and over again. I swear, nearly
half of this movie is just that - doors slowly opening on their own. WTF dude?!
Are you trying to ruin your career just as its beginning to take off? And stop
with all the lamesauce boo scares! This isn’t a Paranormal Activity movie!
All the actors are fine in their parts once again. Rose
Byrne and Patrick Wilson do what they can with the trite material they have to
work with, Barbara Hershey gets a hell of a lot more screen time and makes the
most of it while investigating alongside Leigh Whannell and Angus Simpson’s
entertaining ghostbuster troupe. The incomparable Lin Shaye gets a few of the
best moments in the entire film (her introduction received applause from the
audience) and new character Carl, played by Steve Coulter, is a nice stand in
for her before she makes her appearance.
The children, played again by Ty Simpkins and Andrew Astor, are pushed
aside for the most part with only Simpkins receiving a few moments to shine
toward the end.
The last act works mostly due to the unexpected twists and
turns the plot takes. Everything else not so much. Insidious: Chapter 2 is a lazy film that it plays it safe for the
most part. It feels rushed and half assed, most likely due to the fact that the
movie was pumped out so quickly after Wan finished filming The Conjuring. Events don’t make sense, it’s aimless for a good
portion of its runtime and the payoff is lackluster in the extreme. And of
course it’s set up for another sequel.
I expected so much more from this flick and I didn’t get it.
It comes off as a simple cash in and nothing more. It had the potential to
rock, but the ball was dropped somewhere along the way. As I said, there’s some
good stuff in there, it’s just surrounded by a lot of useless crap. If there is
another film I hope the direction hinted at in the final moments is the way the
filmmakers decide to go. If not… they’re the insidious ones.
2 out of 5
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