Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

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nTitle: Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

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nDirector: James Wan

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nCast: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, BarbaranHershey, Steve Coulter

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nWhat do you mean James Wan is no longer doing horror films?nWhat? This guy was born for this! I was shocked to learn that Wan will not benmaking horror films anymore; according to Wan himself,  Insidious: Chapter 2  will be his last one. Too bad, I mean, the guyngot started thanks to the horror genre with the highly successful franchisenstarter Saw (2004), a film that shocked me the first time I saw it. I remembernI immediately saw it again; with a friend of course! I wanted others tonexperience that jolt to the system that the first Saw film gave me. Same withnThe Conjuring (2013), a horror film that I quickly recommended to as manynpeople as possible, I mean, that was a great horror movie man! The Conjuringnbrought 70s styles scares back! It brought the supernatural horror film back inna good way, not in a goofy way which is what usually happens. Sometimes I gonsee these supernatural films hoping to see the next The Exorcist (1973), butnend up with films like the extremely crappy Lost Souls (2000).The Conjuring hasnbeen a huge hit for director James Wan, it’s still in theaters and so far it’s closento reaching the 300 million dollar mark worldwide. So, hot on the heels of The Conjuring, here comes Insidious: Chapter 2. Can James Wan deliver a doublenwhammy of horror excellence? And why is he abandoning the horror genre?

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nInsidious: Chapter 2 picks up exactly where the previousnfilm left off, with the Lambert family recovering from the events that tooknplace in the first film in which Josh, the dad of the family, had an out ofnbody experience and actually visited the afterlife in order to find his sonsnspirit, which was lingering somewhere in “the other side” or “the further” as they call it in these films. Problemnis that apparently, when Josh and his son came back, they didn’t come back alone,nan evil entity came back with them and now it haunts thenLamberts! It’s seems evil spirits just don’t want to leave this family alone! What does the entity want with this family and will they ever leadna normal life again?

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nJames Wan is awesome as a horror director, and it’s a real pitynhe doesn’t want to continue doing horror. nHe says he doesn’t want to be pigeon holed into making only one type ofnfilm. He mentions that Hollywood loves to put you in a box, and if the box theynput you in is the horror box, then that’s all you’ll ever be. But Wan wants tonbreak with that, he wants to do all types of films, not just horror. Which isnunderstandable, I mean, sure, every horror director eventually branches out andndecides to venture in other directions, even the most hardcore of horror directorsndoes a film that has nothing to do with horror. I mean, look at George Romero’snKnightriders (1981), Wes Craven’s Music from the Heart (1999) or Stuart Gordon’snThe Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998). Hey, for further proof just look at Sam Raiminwho was at one time one of the most popular horror directors and what is hennow? He’s gone mainstream Hollywood for Christ’s sake! Horror films have alwaysnbeen a breeding ground for great directors. Many of today’s best directors startednout with a horror film, just look at Oliver Stone’s The Hand (1981) if you don’tnbelieve me. So Wan’s move doesn’t surprise; he is currently shooting Fast and Furiousn7 (2014). Of course directing a huge summer movie like Fast and Furious 7 is antempting thing for Wan. I mean, here’s a guy who started making independentnhorror films and now he’s been given the opportunity to direct a summernblockbuster, with a budget many times over the micro budgets he was used to workingnwith. Of course he’ll take the opportunity, it’s a smart move economically andncareer wise, but trust me; he’ll be back! They always come back to horror! Justnlook at Sam Raimi’s who returned from his horror hiatus to direct Drag Me to Hell (2009). So let’s hope that we haven’t seen the last of James Wan’snincursions into the horror genre.

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nThe thing about Insidious: Chapter 2 is that after seeing DeadnSilence (2007), Insidious and The Conjuring (2013), this fourth supernaturalnhorror film from James Wan feels just a tad repetitive. I mean, there are onlynso many scenes of doors slamming by themselves that I can take before I feelnlike I’m watching the same film over and over again. With Insidious: Chapter 2,nyou definitely get the feeling that we’re walking on familiar ground, sadly, itnfalls on repetition. Wan has a couple of things he finds scary one of them isnspooky looking dolls, which is a motif that pops up in all of his horror films,neven as far back as Saw. He also finds old ladies scary, he went over this in DeadnSilence (2007) which was about this old lady ventriloquist and again, there wasna spooky old lady ghost demon thing in Insidious (2010), and yet again innInsidious: Chapter 2 (2013). So all of Wan’s supernatural horror films have ansimilarity to them, they kind of feel like they exist in the same universe ornsomething. But my first impression with Insidious: Chapter 2  was  that Wan and his writing partner Leigh Whannellnare running out of ideas. Apparenty, The Conjuring was the apex of Wan’s explorationsnin supernatural horror, Insidious Chapter 2 feels like one supernatural horrornfilm too many. He should have taken a stab at some other type ofnhorror film. Don’t forget boys and girls, horror films are not composed ofnsupernatural horror alone.

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nAnother element thatnmakes you feel Wan is walking on tired ground is that Insidious: Chapter 2nfeels like a mix between The Amityville Horror (1979) and Poltergeist (1982),nweird thing is that the same can be said for Wan’s three previous horror films,nthey all draw from the same two films. Let’s see in Poltergeist characters havento venture to the afterlife to rescue family members…in Poltergeist we got anfunny, nice old lady clairvoyant who helps the family. In Poltergeist we haventhese supernatural investigator types exploring everything…the similarities arenthere. Then we have the whole “dad turns evil” scenario that was so effectivelynused in The Amityville Horror and The Shinning (1980), by the way, there’s ancouple of nudges to Kubrick’s classic here as well. Some moments also reminded me of Carnival of Souls (1962), especially those scenes with the ghosts and “the further”. So what we have here ladies and gents is Wan and Whannellndrawing from the same movies they’ve been drawing inspiration from since the firstnInsidious.   

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nStill, even though it feels a bit repetitive, I say InsidiousnChapter 2 is not a bad horror film at all. It has some genuinely creepy momentsnin it, some really well thought out scares. I gotta give it to Wan again, hensure knows how to construct a suspense filled moment, he knows how to build thatntension. Also, there’s a cool spooky story in there to hold the whole filmntogether. This time around, Wan amps up the comedic relief by way of the twonparanormal investigators. The way this film ends, you kind of get the feelingnthat these two geeky guys are going to branch off into their own series ofnfilms, ala Ghostbusters (1984). I wouldn’t mind at all, I’m actually one of thenguys that’s dying to see that Ghostbusters film that doesn’t seem to wantnto ever take off. The comedic relief on Insidious: Chapter 2 might be welcomednby some as a means to release some tension, but for those of us who like ournhardcore, dreadfully dreadful horror vibe, well, these comedic elements mightnfeel out of place. Still, I don’t think your enjoyment of this film will benhindered by the mild comedy. Final word: kudos to Wan for making a horror filmnthat creeps up on you with a mere 5 million bucks! This film is making such anprofit that it’s not even funny! Oren Peli (the films producer)sure knows thenformula for success and he’s using it: make na quality low budget film (keword: quality) and people will back it. Notnonly that, since you didn’t spend all that much, you’ll get your investmentnback! It’s a win-win situation! So anyhow’s my people, Insidious Chapter 2 is ansolid piece of supernatural horror. Now if only we could all collectivelynconvince Wan not to “retire from horror!”

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nRating:  3 1/2 out of 5  

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