Insidious:
Chapter 2
Patrick Wilson is back as Josh – the father struggling to bring
some normalcy to his family after the horrible events of the first
movie. He has been accused of murder, and wants to convince the family
that all of the strange noises and other bumps in the night don’t
exist. However, his wife, Renai (Rose Byrne), is starting to wonder
what the heck is going on in this crazy house (they should be
leaving!).
Something is bothering the baby!
Something keeps playing the piano!
Something is sitting there in the living room!
What is it?
James Wan is a very talented director who knows how to get the most out
of a crummy script, but, since he helped contribute the story, he
doesn’t escape unscathed from this review or the derision of
anyone who sees Insidious: Chapter 2. It was so bad, the crowd
was openly laughing at the worst moments and mocking several
characters.
Much like the first Insidious, Wan and the gang are working
with a small budget, which can be a benefit and a curse. Some of the
special effects seem cheesy and cheap, like Josh’s trips into the
other world (or other dimension or The Further or whatever you want to
call it) where he wanders into a pitch black dark stage with some smoke
and steam and that is supposed to creep us out and feel otherworldly.
At best, it looks like a failed haunted house attraction put on by the
Rotary Club at Halloween.
At other times, the low tech effects add a brutal realism to it all,
and shock us even more than the most supercharged CGI.
However, Insidious: Chapter 2 becomes too campy and too silly
for its own good. Wan and co-writer Leigh Whannell are overly focused
on the big scare moments and not focused enough on storytelling.
It’s a very flat, out of left field story without much importance
to the impact on the audience. It’s all just an excuse to go into
another creepy house, and introduce some new characters that could
serve as the primary leads for a sequel (which is heavily implied in
this movie).
The rest of the time Wan and Whannell are trying too hard to tie into
the last movie. We have moments that would be very cool to see how they
tied into the last movie if Insidious was some highly revered,
game-changing, classic film, we have watched 20 times over, but
it’s not. Unless you want to watch both movies back to back,
these in jokes and occurrences mean nothing because they aren’t
exactly explaining any moments or scenes that were monumental and make
us wonder what was behind it all. They are answering questions no one
is asking.
Insidious: Chapter 2 feels like a movie rushed
out there to capitalize on the success of the first without any reason
other than to cash in as quickly as possible.
Insidious: Chapter 2 is rated PG-13 for intense
sequences of terror and violence, and thematic elements.
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