James Wan is on a major Hollywood hot streak right now. After the surprise success of 2010's Insidious and this summer's even more successful The Conjuring, those with a pessimistic turn of mind might have been tempted to believe he was due for a stumble. In fact, in my review of The Conjuring (http://geeksout.org/blogs/ranerdin/movie-review-conjuring), I cautioned against Wan repeating too much of a good thing, with forthcoming sequels to both of those films. I approached Insidious: Chapter 2 with the extreme trepidation and hardened heart of a seasoned horror fan who has been burned countless times in the past by stupid and unnecessary sequels. Thankfully, to my surprise and delight, this surprisingly good sequelwas a joy to watch.
Insidious: Chapter 2 picks up right at the end of the first film, Halloween 2 style. My biggest concern going in was that all signs pointed to this being a completely gratuitous film designed solely for milking fans out of time and money, much like Halloween 2 itself but without the presence of Jamie Lee Curtis to redeem it. The first film told what seemed to be an entirely self contained and fully realized (in its own ridiculous horror movie way) story. I do not think for one second that this second story was pre-plotted, but James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Wannel do an admirable job of manipulating events and, relying on a bit of luck, making it seem as if we only got one piece of the story and that this film was necessary for filling in the gaps.
For the most part this is very successful. After a somewhat clumsy opening, it feels nice to spend some more time with these characters, and I found myself actually enjoying the fact that we get more back story and insights into this family. Although Vera Farmiga is one of my favorite actresses and I appreciated her presence in The Conjuring, I think Patrick Wilson has a lot more chemistry with the also-supremely-talented Rose Byrne.
Casting a lead in a haunted house film is tricky -- acting in these scenes is one of Hollywood's most thankless and surprisingly difficult tasks. It involves very little doing and a whole lot of reacting, generally without the benefit of any other on screen actors to play off of, and the actor in question benefits from having expressive eyes and exaggerated facial features. In recent years I think this worked best with Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black (a fantastic and very British ghost story that I highly recommend if you haven't yet seen it). Rose Byrne gives good horror face -- as does the fabulous Barbara Hershey, who has, thankfully, been given more to do this time around in an expanded role. Best of all, though, is another appearance by the fabulous and criminally underrated Lin Shaye, reprising her role as paranormal investigator Elise. I make no secret and offer no apologies about being a huge fan of Shaye ever since her small role as Nancy's teacher in 1984's classic A Nightmare On Elm Street, and she steals every single one of her scenes.
All three of these women do a fantastic job in this film. In fact, women have most of the power here, and the men seem somewhat emasculated in comparison (much to this reviewer's delight). The strong female presence surrounding him helps anchor Patrick Wilson's also great performance and provides some interesting subtext to his character. Wilson is also thankfully given more to do in this film, and after seeing James Wan give him mostly generic "nice dad" material in the past, it was jarring and surprisingly effective to see him go to a darker place here. He exceeded my expectations as the scariest dad since Jack Nicholson, and I was impressed with his range when the film changes tone in its final act.
This is something I've been noticing now with Wan's last three horror films -- they start as classic ghost stories and always shift to something else. Where Insidious went into some spiritual/dimensional stuff and The Conjuring marred its overall effect with a weak exorcism plot, I think the tonal shift actually works very well here. Having now seen Wan's haunted house directorial tricks three times in a row, and despite his obvious mastery of the genre, I was ready to see him do something different. I love atmosphere as much as the next guy, but there's only so much buildup-buildup-buildup-JUMPSCARE I can take before I start to get impatient. Ghosts are always a bit too ethereal to give me any true sense of danger, and by the time this film shifts to a more physical and "real" threat, it was welcomed and effective. I know many have complained about it feeling awkward, but I enjoyed being put in a more visceral place (and it makes me curious to see what Wan would do with a straight up slasher film).
The film benefits from this latter bit of gritty realness because its stumbles primarily happen when relying on some of the cheap ghost tricks that have already been done to -- well -- death. Creaking doors, dark corridors, creepy dolls, and a completely gratuitous abandoned hospital scene aside, the film's biggest weakness is probably in dialogue. I appreciated the attempts at crafting a cohesive backstory to explain the mythos created in the first film, but none of it is particularly strong and, with the exception of one brilliant scene tying this film to an unexplained moment in part one, not particularly clever. I sort of bought the serial killer stuff, though the scenes with his mother -- who I almost thought was a surprise Joan Crawford cameo -- were a bit much. As always when dealing with spirits in horror, less-is-more generally works best for manipulating scares. And, unfortunately with horror sequels, they unfailingly follow the reverse trajectory of this logic and show too much, and even a director like Wan who understands restraint falls victim to this temptation here. There are several scenes where it would have been more effective and frightening to see characters talking to themselves rather than being able to hear and even see the spirits talk back. Spirits of the dead, by the way, probably don't have much to do in their free time besides hang around and watch reruns of Dynasty. They're all very over the top, sometimes distractingly so.
Despite these flaws, Insidious Chapter 2 was a lot of fun, and, although I know this will annoy many people, I may actually prefer it to the original. It's bigger, flashier, cheesier, and puts less focus on atmosphere, certainly. But a great cast, strong performances, and clever tie ins with the previous film make this a very enjoyable experience for horror fans who appreciate a director that puts care and love into his work. Although of COURSE a sequel is already being discussed after its huge opening weekend, I really hope that they go in a different direction (as indeed may have been hinted at in the final scene) and allow the Lambert family some rest and relaxation, because this was a satisfying ending to their story and an ultimately satisfying addition to James Wan's growing horror canon. Rating: B
@robrussin
