Review of Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) by Liam C — 06 Jul 2014

Saying that 2 isn't as good as 1 is not fair, its not as scary as the first one, that's for sure, it's supposed to be a horror film, you could argue, so you could say it's bad but to me it feels more like a continuation of the family's story over just a scare fest. Which could be scary, there's no real reason for it not to be, the first one was and this was marketed as a horror film. Perhaps I'm making too many excuses? I'm not sure. All I'm saying is I'm glad it's not forced. The fact that its a horror sequel of all things thats made for the right reasons and that it actually has somewhere to go and it's all executed very well. It isn't just a cashed in sequel that was made because the first one was a popular hit, no. Its a well thought out, excellently written thrill ride that has places to go, loose ends to tie up and all the while making it very entertaining.

While it certainly isn't as scary as the first one, like everyone else has already said at this point, the creepiness as well as great atmosphere of it still remains, everything from the very inventive cinematography that will just hold still on an image for a few seconds and then change it's angle; to the very well done musical score that sounds like it's being played in the room that you are in; the lighting of the difference in worlds that our characters are in and everything else in between. Some of the set up shots are interesting too, for example there's one scene where the camera zooms in on a shower curtain where it looks like someone might be there but when the camera finally zooms all the way in it will show nothing there. There's another scene where there's a ghostly apparition walking around and it goes into a room and then a character goes in there, you think the waving curtain is that apparition hiding but it's not and it's things like this that set it apart from other bland jump scare films. It does raise some questions though, you go into this to be scared and then leave feeling how you did when you entered. What if you went to see a film you thought was a drama but then turned out to be a comedy, would you give it a negative review then? Even if it was good?

Just like with the first film you do just sort of have to sit back and forget logic for awhile and just like with the first one it was never a problem to me, it's a supernatural horror/thriller film, I wasn't exactly watching it for political insight or how to have a healthy relationship; no, I was expecting a great fantasy story and that's what I got with both instalments but the sequel succeeds in the story department. While the story follows pretty much directly after the first one and feels like a very natural progression of the Lamberts story with great character development and great interactions with a few stories going on at the same time. I got the impression that horror film veteran wanted to make a film that had more story in it for a change. It works on a story telling level as it connects to the first film not only because it has a number 2 on the end but uses scenarios from the first film in a very inventive and unique way, it does feel like he never gets a true balance and ultimately there is too much talking and not enough scaring. It wasn't a problem for me but for a vast majority it clearly was and I can see where they are coming from and hopefully the final act rekindled some interest.

What helps it to keep going is that the cast from the previous film all return and give very committed performances to help ground everything from feeling silly or unimportant. The real standout here is Patrick Wilson playing a dual role of sorts, I won't spoil it but seeing as how he is not himself for a fair majority of this, it is great to see that he can do psychotic villainy and it feels like he was channeling a bit of Jack Nicholson for the film, with his big smiles and in some of his delivery. Other scenes feel Shining-ish too. You can't trademark a man smashing down a door with someone on the other side to a single film but it did feel like an unintentional homage to the Shining. The makeup on Wilson was good here too and didn't look fake.

For as good as I thought it was there was very few problems and they're all down to Tucker and Specs, I don't have a problem with a bit of light relief in a film as I think a horror film really does need it in a few spots. These two, however, felt very out of place and quite useless, they very rarely do anything of any worth and when they do, do something they usually just get taken out in a matter of seconds. They have very strange dialogue in a situation that does not at all call for it, it's in a scene in a van and I won't go on from there. Near the start they decide who goes into a creepy room by playing 'Hunter, Ninja, Bear' I understand it's their 'thing' but was playing 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' not exciting enough for you or something? I found an excuse for this because I do think if you were in a situation with other worldy creatures, besides screaming until your lungs exploded, you would start to make lame jokes to make you and/or others laugh to mask just how frightened you are. One thing they do well and it's very, very minor in one scene, one of them says it's a girls room because there is a dolls house in the room they're investigating, the other one says that he had a dolls house when he was younger. It isn't much of anything at all and maybe I am looking too deep but it does help toward ending the stereotype that all men have to like sports and all girls have to like barbies and stupid things like a dolls house doesn't have to be gender specific. Again, I probably am looking too deeply at this but if that was the intent of that line, which I am almost certain it wasn't, I'll take it. I also feel bad for the other son in the film, the actor doesn't really have anything to do at all, besides the bedroom scene at the start and a few screams now and then he's mostly forgotten, but that's just me feeling bad for the actor as opposed to a problem with the film.

I don't want to say it's lazy just simply because it wasn't as scary as the first one was because I feel it was much more inventive than the first one, with it's creepy imagery, great lighting, powerful performance from Patrick Wilson and strong story, but I would have liked to have been scared more than I was, the Darth Maul from the first film is still burned into my retinas. It felt long but for good reasons, there's a lot to attach to for this film and there's a lot going on. I understand where people are coming from but the really negative reviews feel a little unfair because the rest of the film seems to not have been credited. It's a very interesting film that follows the first one in a very inventive and unique way, it feels like a very necessary sequel and saying that about a film, and a horror one at that, is quite praise worthy.