2011's Insidious, Directed by James Wan, was a creepy film that found a way to be effectively scary through it's subtlety. It didn't telegraph its scares, so the audience was unprepared for them and were effectively frightened. It had mystery and strong performances and writing, with characters who behaved realistically.
Well, at least the first half was like that. The second half of the film changed things, bringing in a complicated mythology that, while not uninteresting, required large amounts of explanation and forced the film to lose the subtlety that had defined the first half, effectively limiting the amount of scares it could have. After The Conjuring came out this summer, and proved that Wan could make a simple horror film that was effectively scary and tense throughout, I had higher hopes for Insidious: Chapter 2. Boy was that a mistake.
After only a few scenes it became apparent that this film was not following the second half of Insidious, so much as digging itself deeper and deeper into that hole without daring to look back. This film attempts to expand the mythology of the first one, and fill in any holes, but all it ends up doing is creating more plot holes and confusion. It is nearly impossible to follow the plot of this film, as it lacks almost any logic, rather just throwing an assortment of gothic images and half baked supernatural ideas at the audience. It doesn't help that the performances are either entirely bland or laughably over-the-top. Patrick Wilson is especially bad, given a lot to work with and ruining almost every scene he's in, or he would if they weren't already ruined by lazy and uninteresting camera work and amateurish direction.
The biggest issue: it's not scary. The film tries for genuine scares and tension, but it seems like everybody involved forgot how to do that, since almost every one of these scenes winds up more effective at eliciting laughs rather than screams. The screening I was at was recorded for sound to use in marketing, but I can't imagine how effective that will be, as the theater was filled with laughter and snores, but nary a scream in earshot.
The reason for this is that there is no buildup to the scares. They just show up and, without the proper setup, feel like hearing the punchline before the joke, they make no sense and lose all intended effect. This is just as important to scares as it is to jokes. Think of the opening of Jaws. The buildup makes the scene as we are introduced slowly to the idea that something is in the water with the girl. We are with her as she struggles against this force, building our tension as we wait to see if she gets away. Now just imagine she's swimming and all of the sudden starts getting pulled around out of the blue. Not quite as scary is it? This is the effect that most of the scares in Insidious: Chapter 2 have. They are more funny than scary because we haven't been given a chance to feel involved in the world and the events, and played so over the top that we simply cannot buy it at all.
Is everything in the film bad? No. The attempts at intentional humor are actually very successful. This would be fine in a horror comedy, but Insidious: Chapter 2 takes itself to seriously to be considered that. Instead, these moments wind up too few and far between to even come close to saving the film, and just wind up highlighting how ineffective the rest of the film is.
I know by Insidious and The Conjuring that James Wan can make a good scary film, so I cannot believe that he truly put his all into this. It feels lazy, like nobody involved cared enough to make a good film, but rather just tried to get the film made for a paycheck. As sad as that is in and of itself, at least it means that I can still expect good things from Wan in the future... hopefully.
Grade: D
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