Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

Title: Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

Director: James Wan

Cast: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey, Steve Coulter

What do you mean James Wan is no longer doing horror films? What? This guy was born for this! I was shocked to learn that Wan will not be making horror films anymore; according to Wan himself,  Insidious: Chapter 2  will be his last one. Too bad, I mean, the guy got started thanks to the horror genre with the highly successful franchise starter Saw (2004), a film that shocked me the first time I saw it. I remember I immediately saw it again; with a friend of course! I wanted others to experience that jolt to the system that the first Saw film gave me. Same with The Conjuring (2013), a horror film that I quickly recommended to as many people as possible, I mean, that was a great horror movie man! The Conjuringbrought 70s styles scares back! It brought the supernatural horror film back in a good way, not in a goofy way which is what usually happens. Sometimes I go see these supernatural films hoping to see the next The Exorcist (1973), but end up with films like the extremely crappy Lost Souls (2000).The Conjuring has been a huge hit for director James Wan, it’s still in theaters and so far it’s close to reaching the 300 million dollar mark worldwide. So, hot on the heels of The Conjuring, here comes Insidious: Chapter 2. Can James Wan deliver a double whammy of horror excellence? And why is he abandoning the horror genre?

(Above) Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) (Below) Carnival of Souls (1962)

Insidious: Chapter 2 picks up exactly where the previous film left off, with the Lambert family recovering from the events that took place in the first film in which Josh, the dad of the family, had an out of body experience and actually visited the afterlife in order to find his sons spirit, which was lingering somewhere in "the other side" or "the further" as they call it in these films. Problem is that apparently, when Josh and his son came back, they didn’t come back alone, an evil entity came back with them and now it haunts the Lamberts! It's seems evil spirits just don't want to leave this family alone! What does the entity want with this family and will they ever lead a normal life again?

James Wan is awesome as a horror director, and it’s a real pity he doesn’t want to continue doing horror.  He says he doesn’t want to be pigeon holed into making only one type of film. He mentions that Hollywood loves to put you in a box, and if the box they put you in is the horror box, then that’s all you’ll ever be. But Wan wants to break with that, he wants to do all types of films, not just horror. Which is understandable, I mean, sure, every horror director eventually branches out and decides to venture in other directions, even the most hardcore of horror directors does a film that has nothing to do with horror. I mean, look at George Romero’s Knightriders (1981), Wes Craven’s Music from the Heart (1999) or Stuart Gordon’s The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998). Hey, for further proof just look at Sam Raimi who was at one time one of the most popular horror directors and what is he now? He’s gone mainstream Hollywood for Christ’s sake! Horror films have always been a breeding ground for great directors. Many of today’s best directors started out with a horror film, just look at Oliver Stone’s The Hand (1981) if you don’t believe me. So Wan’s move doesn’t surprise; he is currently shooting Fast and Furious 7 (2014). Of course directing a huge summer movie like Fast and Furious 7 is a tempting thing for Wan. I mean, here’s a guy who started making independent horror films and now he’s been given the opportunity to direct a summer blockbuster, with a budget many times over the micro budgets he was used to working with. Of course he’ll take the opportunity, it’s a smart move economically and career wise, but trust me; he’ll be back! They always come back to horror! Just look at Sam Raimi’s who returned from his horror hiatus to direct Drag Me to Hell (2009). So let’s hope that we haven’t seen the last of James Wan’s incursions into the horror genre.

The thing about Insidious: Chapter 2 is that after seeing Dead Silence (2007), Insidious and The Conjuring (2013), this fourth supernatural horror film from James Wan feels just a tad repetitive. I mean, there are only so many scenes of doors slamming by themselves that I can take before I feel like I’m watching the same film over and over again. With Insidious: Chapter 2, you definitely get the feeling that we’re walking on familiar ground, sadly, it falls on repetition. Wan has a couple of things he finds scary one of them is spooky looking dolls, which is a motif that pops up in all of his horror films, even as far back as Saw. He also finds old ladies scary, he went over this in Dead Silence (2007) which was about this old lady ventriloquist and again, there was a spooky old lady ghost demon thing in Insidious (2010), and yet again in Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). So all of Wan’s supernatural horror films have a similarity to them, they kind of feel like they exist in the same universe or something. But my first impression with Insidious: Chapter 2  was  that Wan and his writing partner Leigh Whannell are running out of ideas. Apparenty, The Conjuring was the apex of Wan’s explorations in supernatural horror, Insidious Chapter 2 feels like one supernatural horror film too many. He should have taken a stab at some other type of horror film. Don’t forget boys and girls, horror films are not composed of supernatural horror alone.

Another element that makes you feel Wan is walking on tired ground is that Insidious: Chapter 2feels like a mix between The Amityville Horror (1979) and Poltergeist (1982), weird thing is that the same can be said for Wan’s three previous horror films, they all draw from the same two films. Let’s see in Poltergeist characters have to venture to the afterlife to rescue family members…in Poltergeist we got a funny, nice old lady clairvoyant who helps the family. In Poltergeist we have these supernatural investigator types exploring everything…the similarities are there. Then we have the whole “dad turns evil” scenario that was so effectively used in The Amityville Horror and The Shinning (1980), by the way, there’s a couple of nudges to Kubrick’s classic here as well. Some moments also reminded me of Carnival of Souls (1962), especially those scenes with the ghosts and "the further". So what we have here ladies and gents is Wan and Whannell drawing from the same movies they’ve been drawing inspiration from since the first Insidious.   

Still, even though it feels a bit repetitive, I say Insidious Chapter 2 is not a bad horror film at all. It has some genuinely creepy moments in it, some really well thought out scares. I gotta give it to Wan again, he sure knows how to construct a suspense filled moment, he knows how to build that tension. Also, there’s a cool spooky story in there to hold the whole film together. This time around, Wan amps up the comedic relief by way of the two paranormal investigators. The way this film ends, you kind of get the feeling that these two geeky guys are going to branch off into their own series of films, ala Ghostbusters (1984). I wouldn’t mind at all, I’m actually one of the guys that’s dying to see that Ghostbusters film that doesn’t seem to want to ever take off. The comedic relief on Insidious: Chapter 2 might be welcomed by some as a means to release some tension, but for those of us who like our hardcore, dreadfully dreadful horror vibe, well, these comedic elements might feel out of place. Still, I don’t think your enjoyment of this film will be hindered by the mild comedy. Final word: kudos to Wan for making a horror film that creeps up on you with a mere 5 million bucks! This film is making such a profit that it’s not even funny! Oren Peli (the films producer)sure knows the formula for success and he’s using it: make  a quality low budget film (keword: quality) and people will back it. Not only that, since you didn’t spend all that much, you’ll get your investment back! It’s a win-win situation! So anyhow’s my people, Insidious Chapter 2 is a solid piece of supernatural horror. Now if only we could all collectively convince Wan not to “retire from horror!”

Rating:  3 1/2 out of 5  

     

The Conjuring (2013)

Title: The Conjuring (2013)

Director: James Wan

Cast: Lily Taylor, Patrick Wilson, Vera Fermiga, Ron Livingston

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you’ll probably know how I’m always bitching and moaning about the current state of American Horror films. It is my opinion that American Horror films are so watered down, so neutered that they just don’t have that same shock value that films from the 70’s or 80s had. Films like The Exorcist (1973) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) seem like rarities when compared to the kind of horror films that we’re getting nowadays. Horror films that truly shock and scare seem to come around every once in a blue moon. The truth of the matter is that like any other type of film, a good one is a rare thing. A truly good film on any genre, a classic, only comes around when a true genius is behind the camera; a good director who truly understands how a horror film works, how the mind of the audience can be manipulated, how music plays such an important part in the overall effect of a horror film. Not many directors understand these things and therefore many of the horror films released today are simply not effective. But there is hope at the end of the tunnel, there is a light shinning.

   

I remember a time when horror directors where a strong breed, growing in numbers, cranking out horror film after horror film. This was the time when we’d see Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, George Romero and John Carpenter all making films at the same time in Hollywood, scaring the nation with their films. You saw their name in a movie poster and you knew the film was being made by a director who understands the horror genre and was attempting to make a film that you wouldn’t feel cheated by, these were directors that truly loved the genre. Todays horror directors are scarce; rarely do we see a director completely devoted to the horror genre. Today, directors who specialize in horror are limited to releasing their films solely on dvd.  This is why we have guys like Ty West, a director who’s showed promise with films like The House of the Devil (2009) and The Innkeepers (2011), but has yet to have a theatrical release. During the 80’s we’d see A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13^th films every couple of months. Today we got reboots to both of those franchises, yet neither has spawned sequels! What gives? If this was the eighties we’d have two or three of these films already! We’d be on Friday the 13^th reboot part 8 by now! What’s going on with horror today? Is it being slowly strangled to death? It's certainly slowed down its pace in theater screens thats for sure. 

James Wan continues his obsession with spooky dolls in his films

So along comes a film like The Conjuring, directed by James Wan, a director who’s slowly but surely made his name in the horror genre. It’s always interesting to see a director get better and better with each film. I’ve been following the career of James Wan since he first shocked me with the first SAW (2004) film. Yeah, remember that first SAW film? Not the endless, crappy sequels, but that first one that really shocked the pants off of you? That was Wan on his first freaking film, so the guy was showing promise from the very beginning of his career. He's continued making effective horror films like for example Insidious (2011), a horror film that I really liked because it managed to scare us by playing with our minds rather than try and shock us with gore. It played with our expectations of a horror film and it had an awesomely creepy musical score. So here comes James Wan again, with another horror offering. This time it’s a film based on “real life events” which of course in my book translates to “exaggerated to the point of unrecognizable”. The question in my mind was: do we need another film about demonic possession? How in the hell do you make these films scary again? Demonic possession films are a joke to me because they rarely reach the level of intensity needed to truly scare. With so many demonic possession films coming off as laughable and hokey, how was James Wan going to pull off an effective film of this nature, especially when they’ve been done to death?

The Conjuring is based on the real life exploits of ‘The Warrens’ a married couple that has dedicated their entire lives to researching the supernatural. They call themselves ‘Paranormal Investigators’ but if you ask me Ed and Lorraine Warren are simply scam artists that for years have managed to take advantage of superstitious people and their fears. Same goes with the people behind the whole Amityville story. These are stories that serve only one purpose and one purpose alone, to sell books and movies; a goal that they’ve managed to achieve quite well; Ed and Lorraine Warren have about six books to their name alone. The guys behind The Amityville Horror have got a couple of books and movies under their belt as well. But if we get down to it, if we search for the reality behind stories like The Amityville Horror for example, they can all be traced down to real life troubles or to people getting together to tell a big fat tall tale and then getting the world to believe it in order to sell a couple of books and make a few movies along the way. Case in point: The Conjuring has passed the 100 million mark at the box office. Why? Because it’s a good horror film that feeds on people fears; you smack the “based on real life” moniker on any movie and a huge chunk of the population will instantly believe it to be true. They’ll be freaked out even before the lights go down in the theater.  But who cares if these stories are total bullcrap or not, what matters to me is if they entertain me or not. I am happy to state that The Conjuring was an effectively creepy horror film, director James Wan has fully matured into a great horror director, one of the best of his generation.

James Wan on the set of The Conjuring (2013)

What makes The Conjuring a great horror film? It can all be attributed to James Wan and the way he directs a scene. It’s all in the way he stretches out the scares and the suspense. As a horror fan, watching The Conjuring felt great because I felt like finally, here’s a director who truly understands how a horror film works! Wan has got the mechanics behind creeping out an audience down flat, he’s been using  atmosphere and slow boiling scare techniques since Dead Silence (1997) and Insidious (2011) which by the way is a great horror film, highly recommend that one to you guys. It is my opinion that with The Conjuring James Wan has perfected his scaring techniques. He knows all the horror movie clichés and uses many of them, but he also knows them  so well that he knows when to play around them, avoid them when you most expect them and then smack you in the face with them when you least expect it. Wan also uses music extremely well, and by the way, this is an area in which many would be horror directors completely fail in, the music in a horror film should fill you with dread, it should crawl under your skin and creep you out and Wan has complete dominion over this in his horror films.

Now I’m not saying that The Conjuring is the most original horror film, because same as many of Wan’s films, it wears its influences on its sleeves. Of course The Amityville Horror (1979) had a huge influence over this one, in fact, with a few changes here and there one could argue that The Conjuring is simply a remake of The Amityville Horror but told from James Wan’s perspective. Let’s see, we have the family moving into a New York home, the house has a spooky story filled with death behind it, the family is disturbed both physically and psychologically, doors slam, demons knock on doors in the middle of the night, demons knock over crucifixes and family pictures, the similarities between The Conjuring and The Amityville Horror are many, which is why I think Wan was just doing his version of The Amityville Horror; paying his respects to a film he obviously loves. The inclusion of The Warrens and the whole recognition that comes with their name is really the only thing that adds a level of originality to The Conjuring. But whatever, I sometimes call James Wan the Tarantino of horror because it’s quite obvious that the filmmakers behind these films saw a bunch of classic horror films, put them all in a blender and then did their own thing with the resulting mix, same as Tarantino does with most of his movies.

So yeah, hip hip hooray for Wan and The Conjuring. One more good thing I can say about the film is that it has a real 70’s feel to it. I know the film takes place during the 70’s but some of the shots, the music, even the title sequence just screams 70’s horror film! So Mr. Wan, I salute you for that, trying to bring the big 70’s horror picture back into our times. I’m glad someone has finally taken the lead and set the horror train on the right track, directors like James Wan show there is hope yet for American Horror films! I’m amazed that so many of James Wan’s movies have been so successful, I guess the audience just recognizes a good horror movie when they see one. Wan is currently directing the seventh film in the Fast and the Furious franchise, which by the way has grown into one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood right now. It’ll be interesting to see what he does with that one, it will be the biggest film he has ever worked on! The way these Fast and the Furious films have been going, I’m pretty sure that Wan’s success is assured with that one. Let’s hope that this success will translate into Wan making more horror movies.

Rating: 4 out of 5  

James Wan directing Vera Fermiga

Prometheus (2012)

Title: Prometheus (2012)

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Patrick Wilson

Ridley Scott’s most recent foray into science fiction -Prometheus- is in many ways different then its predecessors and in many ways the same. As I’m sure many of you know, Prometheus is a prequel to Ridley Scott’s own Alien (1979), the film that redefined sci-fi films and kick started the whole alien franchise. It also happens to be the first science fiction film from Ridley Scott since he made Blade Runner (1982). It’s interesting how Scott denied that this was a prequel for a while, only to later admit that the film does in fact take place within the same universe. That’s right my friends, Scott is playing on familiar ground here. The art design for the interior of the spaceship looks like something that might have come out of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) or Scott’s own Alien; you know, lots of white corridors, very cramped, very claustrophobic. Same as all the other films in the Alien franchise, The Wayland Corporation is the company that oversees space exploration; and same as all previous Alien films, every spaceship gets an android to accompany them. So yeah, this film has a certain familiarity to it for fans of the Alien franchise; the question on my mind was what was going make this one different?

On this film we meet a group of archeologists/scientists that are hot on the trail of humanities origins. They are after the answers to the biggest questions in life: Where did we come from? Who made us? And why did they abandon us? Their search begins with  a series ancient paintings they find, in all of these ancient paintings from different eras in human history, the same image is depicted: humans pointing to the same constellations in the sky. So they zero in on this constellation and embark on a journey towards this sector of the universe, hoping to find the engineers of humanity. Will they find what they are looking for?

To me, Ridley Scott is this cinematic god, he makes movies that I end up falling in love with and can watch over and over again; so of course, seeing this movie in theaters was a major event for me! Like the Greek story of Prometheus, Scott’s films feel like stolen fire from the gods themselves. The worlds Ridley Scott creates are so rich and detailed that he can make a fantastic setting a reality; Blade Runner (1982), Legend (1985) or Gladiator (2000), no matter how fantastic the setting, these worlds feel real, complex and intricate. Another thing that distinguishes Ridley Scott’s films is that they have the highest production values. He makes sure he’s working with the best of the best in order to produce a high quality film. This is also the case with Prometheus, one look at the film and you can just tell that the people that were behind the cameras knew what they were doing. For example, the visual effects work in Prometheus is flawless. This time though, I have no idea who the conceptual artists behind Prometheus are; I don’t know who’s handling the visual effects or the make up effects; to me Prometheus is Scott working with a whole new generation of creative talents; which of course is great, if you’ve seen Alien, then you’ll feel a familiarity with this world, yet at the same time, it will feel new and fresh. I love how Scott’s approach towards visual effects is “if you can do it live, do it live”, an advice given to him by fx guru Douglas Trumbull while filming Blade Runner. This is the main reason why Scott doesn’t overdo CGI; if he can build a set, he will. This kind of filmmaking adds a level of realism that is quickly disappearing from today’s films, where sometimes they construct only half a set, or only the floor is real; not so in Prometheus where Scott spent a large part of his budget on good old fashioned set construction. Normally I hate CGI, but I've always said that when it's done well, it really, really works. Im glad to say that Prometheus is one of those rare occassions when CGI is done right.

Both Alien and Prometheus have certain similarities, but the differences are evident as well. For example, while Alien was a straightforward horror film and for all intents and purposes a monster flick, Prometheus is more of a philosophical film. Like many of the best science fiction films, this one explores the bigger question that humanity asks itself like for example: where the hell did we really come from? And therein lays the crux of this film. It questions religion; it questions the existence of god. Should we believe in life after death? Why are there so many different beliefs on the matter? Could it be that no one really knows the answers to these questions and so we simply choose to believe what we want about the after life and God? This is the main reason why I loved this movie so much; it asks these big questions and actually attempts to answer them. Prometheus basically summarizes where humanity stands with regards to these questions. Yet the film doesn’t eschew the Christian angle of things, actually, Christianity is represented through its main character Elizabeth Shaw as played by Noomi Rapace. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t expecting for Prometheus to touch upon some of the themes that Blade Runner plays with, namely, why we die. This is the reason why I love Blade Runner so much. It has its android protagonists ask their creator for more life. Prometheus also plays with these ideas, which I found fascinating considering Ridley Scott himself is getting pretty old. I’m sure this is a theme that matters to him as a filmmaker now more than ever; so he touches upon it yet again on Prometheus. This is probably why we have characters addressing the issues of life after death, or characters simply wanting, searching to elongate their lives, this once again, and same as Blade Runner, is a film about accepting death. “A King has his reign and then he dies, it’s inevitable” says Meredith Vickers to her employer Peter Weyland; by the way, to me, Scott expressed a lot of his concerns about death through the Weyland character. After all, Scott was 74 at the time of making Prometheus! My admiration goes out to Mr. Scott for making such an amazing film in his golden years. 

Ridley Scott made Prometheus at 74, that's what I call one tough cookie! 

The great thing about Prometheus is that even though it tackles all these philosophically heavy themes, it does not forget to entertain. We get some awesome looking aliens and creatures on this one! Fun stuff! A bit gruesome at times, but then again this is probably why the film earned (thankfully!) its “R” rating. Yet, when compared to Alien, Prometheus feels sometimes a bit constrained on this department, you can tell times have changed, there’s not a lot of blood on this one. But things do get gruesome, and gory believe it or not, the film plays a fine balance in my book between showing you just enough mayhem. Finally, I will say that I was not one bit disappointed with this film. I don’t get why people are saying that it’s flawed? Flawed how? I guess comparing it to Alien is the reason, but we have to remember, that even though Prometheus is obviously linked to the Alien universe of films, it’s still its own beast. It’s obvious that Scott was aiming for a film with its own personality and uniqueness, not a film that felt like it was walking on tired ground. Maybe the scientists don’t act professional enough at times and get themselves into peril too easily? Almost as if they were asking for it? Maybe…but then again, we have to remember this is also a horror film; characters have to put themselves in peril! Highly recommend it, in my book this film was nothing short of epic, amazing, thrilling…top notch, cutting edge filmmaking at its best. This is Scott showing us he’s still got it! I can’t wait to see what he’ll do with that Blade Runner sequel he keeps talking so much about. Prometheusgets the highest possible recommendation from this Film Connoisseur!

Rating: 5 out of 5