James Wan has
made a career as a horror director by simply focusing on creepy dolls and
haunted houses, and it has done wonders for him and the box office sales. 2013 alone saw two haunted house installments from Wan, including
the period film based on a true story, The
Conjuring, and the follow-up to 2010’s Insidious.
Insidious: Chapter 2 is not as
consistent as either The Conjuring, but even amidst a mediocre
film from Wan we are able to see his skill and confidence as a director in this
medium has increased. The over-all film is uneven, but there are still some
terrifying sequences and original ideas sprinkled in this sequel.
The Lambert
family endured a battle with the spirit world in the first film when one of
their children is under threat from a ghost wanting to take his body. In
Insidious: Chapter 2, we learn more about this hereditary trait that allows
members of the family to travel to the spirit world in their dreams. Josh
Lambert (Patrick Wilson) has the same abilities as his son, learned and then
forgotten in his troubled childhood, and returned to threaten his family once
again in an Amityville Horror type
transformation of personality. Meanwhile Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) does all
that she can to protect her family from the ongoing threat.
The film deals
with time travel in a strange unexplained way, folding in on itself in one of
the film’s more clever sequences. This along with a few good scares makes this
for an entertaining film, though one which does not hold up on repeat viewings.
This is second-tier horror after seeing The
Conjuring. The Blu-ray combo pack has three ways of watching the film:
Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy. The special features exclusive to the Blu-ray
include a three-part webisodes made for promoting this film’s release, Leigh
Whannell’s Insidious journal, an on
set Q&A, and a location featurette. Also included is a behind-the-scenes
featurette and one about the visual effects behind the film’s ghosts.
Entertainment Value:
7/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6/10
Historical
Significance: 6/10
Disc Features: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
Agree? Disagree? Questions for the class? All comments are welcome...