When Saw first came out to phenomenal box office returns,
people soon became familiar with director James Wan’s supposed ‘torture porn’
style. After taking a producing role for the rest of the series, and his
subsequent releases Dead Silence and Death Sentence barely received any
critical attention (let alone positive
attention), it seemed like he was going to stuck with that label for the rest
of his professional career, if it would even survive beyond all that. Then came
Insidious in 2009, and audiences took note. Rather than the industrial grime
and twisted morals that have been attached to him thanks to the original Saw,
Insidious blasted its way into cinemas and showed off Wan’s true style:
Old-school horror thrills reminiscent of the haunted house flicks of the 70’s
and 80’s. After that film set a far better preconception for the man, he would
go on to even greater success with The Conjuring and even show his proficiency in genres outside of horror.
However, same year that Conjuring was released, he went back to that staple
that gave him the credit he desperately deserved… and critics weren’t all that
into it. Time to dive in and see if it really deserves the flack it got.
The plot: Shortly after the events of the first film, Josh (Patrick Wilson) has been possessed by a spirit from The Further. As his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) and sons Dalton (Ty Simpkins) and Foster (Andrew Astor) notice that he has been acting strangely since their encounter with the Red-Faced Demon, his mother Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) calls in Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) to help her get to the bottom of what is still haunting their family.
Patrick Wilson is still a great actor and, thankfully, the
character he’s playing this time kind of
is as well. Not only does he get to slip into his old shoes as Josh, he gets to
have some fun as Parker Crane, making for some nice Dolarhyde-lite thrills. Lin
Shaye was extremely distracting in the opening scene, where her voice was very
jarringly dubbed over Lindsay Seim playing a younger version of her character,
but her cheery attitude is still welcomed. Whannell and Sampson are still great
as the comic relief, even making for a legitimately touching moment when they
discuss how Elise’s death affected them, considering their line of work.
Despite its seriously goofy moments, particularly the
climactic encounter with the Red-Faced Demon, it still did wonders at producing
scares through more classical means. Now, James Wan’s old-school sensibilities
when it comes to horror only fully bloomed in The Conjuring, which came out
shortly before this film did; the original Insidious showed a good progression
towards that, but still a little frayed around the edges. This is a sequel that
producer Jason Blum (yes, it’s another one of his productions) and it shows, especially with how the camera and
editing have shifted between films. For some reason, they decided to go into
found footage-style cinematography, primarily in a scene where Specs and Tucker
are investigating Parker’s old house with their camcorders. Now, while that
scene in it of itself felt unnecessary, the found footage mechanics snuck into
the editing as well. In a lot of the Paranormal Activity films, especially the
earlier ones, the editing would look a bit jumpy like moments of dead air were
just cut right out of it. We have the same effect here, except not during the scene with POV camera
footage. As a result, we have a film that feels like it wants to be found
footage but isn’t.
Then again, this being shot in exactly the same way as the
original is kind of excusable. After
all, this film takes a different direction in comparison. Instead of focusing
so much on the atmosphere and being playing like a tribute to the traditional
haunted house flicks, this is more like a supernatural possession thriller that
pays tribute to a different kind of horror film. Namely, Josh/Parker’s
motivation feels like elements of Red Dragon got poured into the script,
crossed with The Cell given how he is taken down in the end. I like Whannell’s
talents when it comes to carrying narrative through a film series, and
admittedly this film does a decent job as a follow-up to the original in terms
of plot. However, that affinity isn’t enough to excuse how this film feels like
Wan’s influences are being pushed even closer to the surface than previously.
Then the film gets to Parker’s mother, and suddenly it becomes a cross between
Sleepaway Camp and Mommie Dearest. Unless you are a literal miracle worker,
that combination is always going to look silly. Really, the only consistent
element that has survived from the first film is the soundtrack… and given how
that includes the histrionic string section, which still made me laugh right at
the title sequence, that’s probably the last
thing I was anxious to see return for this movie.
All in all, it’s a good follow-up to the original, but not
that great a horror film on its own; it left me at a similar point that The Marked Ones did last year. The characters are still engaging, the story feels
like a good way to continue from the previous installment and there are some
decent moments of suspense, but ultimately it feels like it has strayed way too far from what made the first
film good in the first place. Now, we have unnecessary found footage elements
and performances and plot developments that clash heavily with the atmospheric
tone the film is still trying to set.
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