Insidious: Chapter 2

So the horror movie everyone hated this year is the one I liked the most?! We really defend the Conjuring and You're Next over this? I mean, none of them are good, definitely not. But I'll be the first to admit that this movie had me decently scared at least a few times!

Insidious Chapter 2 opens on a very low note - a flashback to the childhood we would have very much appreciated to know about in the first damn movie, with some absolutely horrendous acting from Elise Reiner. I don't know what is going on with her, she was fine in the first movie. But this was absolutely some of the worst acting I've ever seen, even for a horror movie. Every line out of her mouth was forced, silly sounding, took full advantage of making the audience laugh. And whenever she's on screen, it's the same damn thing. Just terrible moment after terrible moment. Really, I couldn't take anything she'd say seriously, even though the movie all but forced me to be dead faced about it. I guess with other horror movies this would be fun, and, like The Conjuring, let me have fun by making fun of the same old horror movie cliche's. But not this time. Her acting  was so forced it actually took away from the joy. That is saying a lot.

But that being said, any scene without her in it was actually generally okay. Nothing great, but the acting was strong enough to at least carry the creepiness of certain scenes that in any other horror film would be the cause of ridicule or laughter. I actually found myself laughing far less during this than I did for the incredibly serious The Conjuring. I also found far more scenes to be at least creepy, one or two even frightening or intense. It lead to a pretty successful climax, mixing horror and action pretty darn well, no silliness at the final actions of the film. Sure, it's a pretty silly conclusion after that, with a pretty god awful sequel set up. But I can forgive that. I was expecting it, so I can get over it.

The film succumbed to the same plot hole issues that so many horror movies do. But I must admit that far fewer of them bothered me to the extent of The Conjuring (I'm sorry, but really, that movie was just horrendously overrated). Not to mention that the movie quickly overlooked them and effectively moved on, leaving no time or desire for me to dwell on them. I wanted to get to the conclusion.

But therein lies another large flaw with this movie. When I see a great horror movie, I want to have some serious amounts of fun with the scary scenes. I love the suspense, I love the idea of waiting to be scared, I never really want it to go away. But while watching this movie, I wanted to get to an ending. I wanted to know what was going to happen, even though I had a pretty good idea throughout the whole movie. The few scary scenes were fun, but once they were over I didn't expect anything more. I suppose that's okay. But with my favorite horror movie being Alien, and memories of loving the fear and hoping for more, I can't call this movie good.

Rank - 2/5