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Blog Entry 4
The film I have chosen for this blog assignment is Insidious 2. The original Insidious film is one of my favorite horror movies, and one of the most successful films in my subgenre. I also did a lot of research on James Wan for other blog assignments, and wanted to watch the sequel to his original film in this franchise.
In my opinion, the sequel is another fantastic movie that has an exceptional plot/storyline. I would also argue that the sequel is scarier than the original, through the use of effective camera work, lighting and sounds/music. A few key scenes stood out to me that will be discussed more later on in this post. At the end of the first Insidious movie, Josh goes into the “world of the dead people” to rescue his son Dalton who had been taken there by a demon. However, we learn at the beginning of this film that Josh was unable to escape from that other world, and his true self, or his soul, is still stuck there. What returned to the real world was the spirit that had been following Josh since childhood. The demon is alive in Josh’s body, and those who have viewed the first movie know that it is the woman in the black dress. I think knowing as a viewer that Josh’s true self is stuck in the other world adds to the fear/anxiety experienced by the viewer when watching this film. For example, in the scene were Renai tells Josh about the paranormal activity going on in their home, Josh assures her that nothing is wrong. However, the viewer knows that it is really a demon in Josh’s body, and they are saying this to Renai so that the paranormal activity can continue happening. This is a unique technique used by director James Wan that adds to the uniqueness of the film. This strategy of the viewer knowing more than the characters in the film is built upon when the film jumps back in time and shows Josh’s mother’s interaction with Parker at a hospital back when she worked there. Parker was a sick and dying man, and attacked Josh in his hospital bed. A few days after the incident, Lorraine sees him in the hospital elevator, but he won’t talk to her. Lorraine talks to her colleagues about this interaction, and they tell her that Parker died of suicide the day prior. What she had seen was a ghost, and this is critical because Parker’s mother is the demon that has taken over Josh and had been following him his entire life. This is another one of those “aha” moments for the viewer, where they feel like they know more than some of the characters in the film. In my opinion, the pinnacle of the plot/storyline and what makes it so great to me, is how at the end of the movie, Dalton voluntarily enters the world of the dead to save his father, just like his father had done for him in the prior movie. It is a full circle event that shows Dalton’s maturity and bravery.
A scene that stood out to me was when Elise’s colleague visits Josh, knowing he is being possessed by either Parker or his mother, and gets attacked. I think the acting in this scene by Patrick Wilson is phenomenal, and from the moment he opens the door, you can tell that he is a man possessed. The use of background music was also brilliant in this scene, as it ominously plays as you see Josh/Parker stalk towards Carl. The music intensifies as Carl drops the dice to learn that Josh has a knife behind his back and is ready to kill him. A second scene that stood out to me was the ending scenes of the movie, as the film navigates between Josh trying to escape the other world and Parker (in Josh’s body) trying to murder his family. The use of dark lighting and ominous dialogue/music when Josh is trapped in the other world makes it chilling and scary.
While I contend that this was a good film, and that I believe it had an exceptional plot/story line, movie critics did not all agree with me. For example, Roger Ebert disliked the film and although admitted that he liked it more than the first movie of the series, believes that the plot/dialogue is bad. I can see where he’s coming from because the plot is admittedly a little confusing at times, but I personally think this is what makes it great; once it all clicks, it is like a Eureka moment for the viewer. Despite what he says, and the fact that it only got a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I hold strong in saying that the movie had an exceptional plot/storyline.
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