In 2010 a movie came along that shook us all with some of
the most disturbing visuals put on film in years. That movie was called Insidious and it not
only resurrected the Tiny Tim song Tiptoe Through the Tulips, it resurrected
the psychological horror genre itself.
Now, five years later, Insidious is officially a trilogy. In all my years I don’t recall seeing a
horror trilogy with three good installments.
That is to say, until now.
The
movie is a prequel to the first Insidious chapter. It features a young girl named Quinn, played
by Stefanie Scott, who has just recently lost her mother. There is a lot of obvious tension between
Quinn and her father (Dermot Mulroney) who is also having a hard time dealing
with the loss. Feeling at the end of her
rope, Quinn tries to contact her mother.
Unfortunately, when she calls out to mom, something else answers.
The
issue that made me apprehensive about this film was the change in directors. James Wan, a proven horror director
throughout the past decade, is out and his longtime friend and writing partner
Leigh Whannell is in. I am pleased to
say that Whannell is the surprise of this film.
Not only did he maintain in the role of director, but he excelled in it. The direction here is a high spot. This is a very well made horror film. I was also worried that Whannell’s writing
may suffer from his taking on extra responsibility, but I actually think this
is the best screenplay of the franchise.
It is about as scary as the first two, but more focused and paced better
than either one of those films.
The
tone of this film is what makes it. It
is the quietest movie I have seen in a while.
That fact lends itself well to suspense building, which Whannell does
masterfully here. The film is dark and
intense and feels very similar to the previous two. There are a few jump scares (no cheap ones)
but most of the scares in the film are pulled off the hard way with long takes
and good old fashioned artistic talent.
The
film contains several very subtle and well done tie-ins to the first two Insidious
movies. This is something I hoped they
would be able to do, but I was afraid they were going to force it. This aspect of the film was handled very well
and was probably one of my favorite things about the movie.
The acting
in the film was another pleasant surprise.
I knew that Lin Shaye would be good and I am glad that she got an
abundance of screen time in this one.
The Elise character is thoroughly fleshed out in this movie and Shaye is
nothing short of brilliant. She is even
better than I expected her to be but the real surprise for me was Stefanie
Scott. You should keep an eye on this
young lady. She was terrific here in a
role that was challenging, both emotionally and physically. Dermott Mulroney did a good job as the
father, who was the most interesting character to me. Angus Sampson and, director Leigh Whannell
are very entertaining once again as Tucker and Specs.
The
last shot of this film is extraordinary, and it ends absolutely correctly. The only real problem that I had however was
that something about the climax just felt a little off. It’s not a big thing, it just seemed a little
too easy or something. Don’t get me
wrong, the ending is good, just not quite what I was hoping for.
I was
very, VERY surprised by this film. I
loved it. I cannot say enough for the
job that Leigh Whannell did picking up where Wan left off. This is a very good psychological horror
film. It’s not a perfect movie, but it
is close. The Movie Man gives it 4 out
of 5 stars.
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