Insidious: Out of the Further
Rating: 3/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
To be completely honest, I had incredibly low expectations for Insidious: Out of the Further going into it. The Red Door was simply a complete dumpster-fire, and I honestly didn't know how they were going to further this story for a sequel. The trailers showed promise that they could be returning to the franchise's roots and deliver this new ghostly tale about another family being haunted by malevolent ghosts from the Further. While I think the first half of this movie works well for the most part in terms of story and horror elements/scares, I think they really start to play it safe with the second half of this picture, presenting a weak, mainstream horror film that is a massive disappointment considering what they were setting up.
The film follows Gemma (Amelia Eve) and her daughter Maya (Island Austin), who are seemingly a very normal family. However, a moment from Gemma's past comes back to haunt her, which opens the door for other spirits from the Further to come into her life and haunt her and her family. Not sure why they are there, she finds Elise (Lin Shaye) in the Further, who promises to help her. Now, Gemma, Maya, Gemma's boyfriend Nick (Brandon Perea), Elise, and Elise's partner Clare (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) must find out who is leading the spirits in the Further and how to stop them all before it is too late for everyone.
When this movie started, it seems like the filmmakers knew that they needed to craft this new horror hit to bring the series back to life. Writer and Director Jacob Chase does a great job of introducing these characters to this world, and shows us how this character of Gemma evolves and becomes the mother we see her as in this movie. At the same time, he brings in this terrifying scares that literally have the audience sitting on the edge of their seats and watching through their fingers. Consider the scene where Gemma goes into the couch fort; that entire sequence had me panicking about what was going to happen and what was going to jump out at us next in this very claustrophobic setting. When watching, the thought going through my head was that maybe they learned from their mistakes and are bringing back this incredibly gritty and depressing horror tale that shows there are no winners in this sort of film.
Then we get into the second half of this film, which I think completely undermines everything the first 45-minutes of this movie set up. It honestly feels like Chase had this really good ides for the story, and I'm not sure if it was studio intervention or his own fear of making this movie too dark, but he then crafts this very mainstream and easy-to-watch conclusions that feels like an incredibly different film than the beginning. It's not scary in the slightest, the antagonist is incredible weak and uninspired, and he forgoes all of the character development to simply give this entire story a happy ending. He also tries too hard to inject humor and cheesy elements into a movie that simply doesn't need it. It's frustrating because it seems more and more evident that we are simply past the times where horror movies can just be terrifying and nihilistic in a way. And, call me pessimistic, but this movie could have benefited from simply not forcing a happy ending and allows this movie to play out more graphically and in a much darker manner.
At the same time, I think one of the biggest peeves I have for these new horror movies is this superhero-complex it comes to returning characters in franchises like this one. The first time we see Shaye's character has her coming in and swinging a light to banish the demons away, which feels very superhero-esque. It's honestly incredibly frustrating because the filmmakers are ruining this horror vibe that they spend time setting up. Why are they now turning these new horror flicks into films that anyone can enjoy when the purpose of a horror movie is simply to scare the pants off the audience?
With that being said, the actors here do a wonderful job with the story and script they are given. While there are definitely parts that feel way too cheesy and too humorous for a movie of this caliber, it seems like the performers here simply want to tell a terrifying story. I think Eve is terrific in the leading role, and Austin does a wonderful job of giving such a terrified performance for such a young actress. The rest of the supporting cast, especially Perea, Shaye, and Sellers are all great in the roles they are given, and it makes me wonder how much greater these performances would have been if they were given much better roles that didn't put their development on the back burner.
While there is no doubt that this is a big improvement over its predecessor, it still simply doesn't work for me like it should. I think if Chase kept up the momentum from the beginning of the film and drove home a terrifying conclusion, I think this picture would have worked great. But, for some odd reason, the studio and Chase decide to simply play it incredibly safe and deliver a happy ending that this film didn't need. I'm disappointed by how this film played out, and I honestly hope they learn from these mistakes if they decide to make more entires in this series.
Comments
Post a Comment