Fuji reviews Insidious: Chapter 2

[Fuji Vice]

Insidious: Chapter 2


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After the events of the previous film, the poor Lambert family is trying to move on and cope with the death of Elise, the woman who helped save Dalton from the evil forces attempting to steal his body. Renai Lambert begins to suspect that her husband, Josh, who went to the other side to save Dalton, may have brought something back with him; something unspeakably evil. She soon enlists the help of Josh's mother Lorraine, Tucker and Specs and a former associate of Elise, Carl, and together they set out to put an end to this evil once and for all.

"Couldn't find the title card so instead here's a pic of a naked chick with a gun."

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MORE LOUD MUSIC~! For those of you that read yesterday’s review of Insidious, you’ll remember that I noticed it featured a lot of really LOUD MUSIC but that it didn’t become a distraction to hide a poor plot. Well Insidious: Chapter 2 basically does the same thing as its predecessor, except this time it’s clearly meant to be that very distraction. Let’s face it, horror sequels are as commonplace as zits on a teenagers face and just like those, many are ugly and nasty blemishes. In the world of modern horror, the second films in a franchise are generally poor and usually designed to set up a potential third film, provided the profit margin is high enough to warrant it. Such has been the case with everything from Paranormal Activity 2 to Saw II, coincidentally created and produced by the very people that bring us today’s movie. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying Insidious: Chapter 2 is as poor as some of its contemporaries, it is still sub-par when compared to the original. Sure it continues the story from where we last left the Lambert family yesterday, but in doing so it casts off any semblance of originality and merely attempts to copy the things that worked before. The major problem there is that nothing really worked in the second half of Insidious and so what we get here is just an extended version of that, and one that fails quite a bit.

"Woman in black, woman in white, both in a mirror, leads to a fright!"
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The same team from Insidious returns to craft this second installment, so yes, we’ve got James Wan directing, Leigh Wannell writing and Oren Peli and Jason Blum producing. Perhaps these guys have been working just a little too hard over the last two years, because it really seems like they phoned in the majority of this movie. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Wannell’s script for the original and felt it borrowed too heavily from Poltergeist once the second half started. In all honesty though, the first one seems like a complete gem in comparison to the one he turns out here, a script that is rife with so much genre cliché that it’s downright insulting at times. I’m not going to fault these dudes for trying to make some dough off the concept of a sequel, but I’m sure going to point out when they’re making a mess of things. Wan’s direction here is also pretty sloppy, although he does redeem himself somewhat with a few nifty tricks and some creepy imagery. The problem is that we’ve been down this road before and can even name every billboard we see along the way; there is just nothing new or exciting to look forward to here.

"Something's rotten in the state of Patrick Wilson."
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Patrick Wilson (still dreamy by the way) reprises his role of Josh but as anyone who's seen the first film knows, he's actually not Josh at all. Wilson is actually quite creepy throughout the film and really seems to enjoy getting the chance to play the heavy for a change. His performance is one of the lone bright spots from an acting standpoint, as a lot of the other cast members really seem to be dialing it in. Rose Byrne is guilty of this crime, as she really doesn't seem to be as into it here as she was in the first film. She's still serviceable, but I found her performance was pretty wooden at times. Leigh Wannell and Angus Sampson return as the comic relief and manage to somehow become more annoying than funny, though to be fair that has a lot more to do with the way they're written (by Wannell no less) than anything else. Aside from Wilson, the other standout here is Barbara Hershey, who gets a bit of an expanded role as Josh's mother and definitely makes the most of it. Her portrayal of a woman who is fully aware of the dangers facing her and her family is spot on and she really comes across sympathetic as she finds herself powerless to stop the evil forces at play.

"Sssh, don't tell anyone that this movie stinks."
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The main issue with Insidious: Chapter 2 (outside of the awful title) is the pretty lame back story behind the evil “woman†from the first film. I won’t bother spoiling it for you but I will say that it’s not only a total letdown; it’s also so laughable that it’s near impossible to take the rest of the movie seriously. The film also attempts to double down on the old haunted house formula (even though technically the houses aren’t haunted, the individuals are) by giving us a whopping TWO locations this time around! Since neither are particularly scary; nor the “ghosts†within (simply carbon copies of ones in films before), this doesn’t really work either. Finally, I was left flabbergasted at the sheer audacity of the filmmaker’s attempts to tie in events from the previous film to this one. While I appreciate the effort, I felt they failed miserably and I honestly just didn’t care. Once they got into high-stepping, timeline shifting scenarios, I lost total interest and not even Wilson or Hershey’s work could bring me back. By the time the film was over (but not before a totally annoying setup for Part 3, which is already in pre-production) I was more than disappointed, I was angry that they couldn’t have just stuck with what worked in the first film and left it at that. If you liked the first film then you’ll probably like a little bit of this, but like me I’ll bet you find yourself more annoyed at the cheap imitation that this film became than anything else. That may be sad, but unfortunately it’s also true. 4.5/10.

"Tomorrow...don't trust these bitches, they could be witches."
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[Wangman Page]

I have no faith in third film doing any better, but this was a major let down felt that they were trying to get laughs instead of scares. Although I did like the guy who kept rolling the dice. He at least made it somewhat interesting for me as I felt he showed more emotion throughout and seemed scared at times.


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[Fuji Vice]

I have no faith in third film doing any better, but this was a major let down felt that they were trying to get laughs instead of scares. Although I did like the guy who kept rolling the dice. He at least made it somewhat interesting for me as I felt he showed more emotion throughout and seemed scared at times.

Yeah, this one was pretty awful. I didn't expect much, but man was it ever bad.

As for the dice guy, he was played by Steve Coulter and was pretty good. Not sure why I forgot to mention him in the review but I'll chalk it up to me getting old. :