Movie: Insidious - Chapter 2

Insidious, Insidious, Insidious. I liked the first chapter (although not as much as I liked The Conjuring - read my review here) so when I learned about the Insidious Chapter 2, you could say I looked forward to watching it. The fact that it was directed by the same person who directed The Conjuring - James Wan - and that Insidious Chapter 2 was no. 1 in the US during its opening week added to the anticipation.


I find the first Insidious movie a pretty decent horror flick, with an original plot, a good cast ensemble, and dotted with a couple or more scary scenes that were actually scary. The only thing that disappointed us, me and my husband, and made us laugh (yes, we laugh at horror movies that don't live up to our expectations), was how the ghosts were made-up. I mean, literally the ghosts' makeup. I thought it's the case of having too much that they look funny instead of scary. They looked like clowns or Heather Ledger's Joker, which I think was intentional - a lot of people are scared of clown-looking ghosts apparently - but it just didn't work for us.

So expecting that the 2nd installment will most likely have the same clown-ghosts, I counted on James Wan's earlier success with The Conjuring, to build up my anticipation and somehow, to make me believe that this movie can be better than the first. It can even surprise us, and beat The Conjuring in our scoreboard.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. I remember reading a review somewhere: "Just because it's not as scary as the first one, it doesn't mean it's a bad movie". And this is exactly how I feel. Like the first movie, Insidious Chapter 2 employs the same old-style scare tactics (with less clown-looking ghosts, yay!), has the same reliable cast that delivered good performance, and a solid story that picks up from where the first left off, which even went further by explaining some of the events in Chapter 1.

It is a good movie on its own. But it's just not as creepy and goose-bump-eliciting as it's predecessor. For me, it was the extended focus in the astral/spirit world that diluted the scare intensity of the entire movie. Even in the first chapter, I find the haunted house to be the better stage to launch effective jolts and jumpy, haunting scenes than the dark, unchartered spirit realm.

So is Insidious Chapter 2 worth watching? Yes, I can say that, especially if you enjoy the first film and would like to know what will happen next. But don't expect too much. Also, a bit of a spoiler: that scene of the white lady in the trailer, for me, is the lone scary scene in the entire movie. There were a few that came close, but that was it. So really, don't expect too much.

Movie: The Conjuring

Everytime we watch a horror movie, we're almost prepared not to get scared. Yes, you got that right, NOT to get scared. Like most of you, we've seen a lot of horror movies, both Asian (Japanese, Thai, Korean) and Western (American, British, Spanish) and sometimes we can't help but think that most plots, twists, jumpy scenes, ghost make-ups, and almost all elements in a horror movie have been used, reused and abused that they will hardly make you wriggle in your seat. They have become so predictable and tiring, often following the pattern of the successful horror films that preceded them, and that takes away the fun in watching these scary flicks.



Then we watched The Conjuring. I remember reading about this movie on Yahoo, where I learned it's relation to Amityville: the couple who investigated the Amityville haunting were the same couple featured in The Conjuring. While I don't exactly find the movie The Amityville Horror, um well, horrifying, ghost detective stories have always piqued my interests. My husband wasn't too thrilled to watch it though, after a handful of not so impressive horror movies that we cared to watch in a moviehouse. But one boring day in a shopping mall, he didn't want to go home yet and The Conjuring was in the Now Showing list so...

The plot and premise of the movie was nothing new, the scare-tactics were also old-school, but everything was in the right place at the right time, and they wove the right mix of suspense, creepiness and horror that we found ourselves holding on to each other tightly and bracing ourselves for the next scary scene. It was a very good horror movie. The last time we got this scared was with Shutter (Thai movie), and it's been a while.

Was it predictable? Let me put it this way, I was enjoying being scared so much that I didn't want to predict what will happen next or how it will end. It's like watching a ghost reality show where I secretly wish that they were able to actually capture something really scary. And there were a lot of those in this movie. Some scenes were familiar, in fact, they reminded me of other popular horror movies. You get a bit of The Exorcist here, Sixth Sense there, Paranomal Activity, Insidious, etc. but still The Conjuring was able to hold it's own and carve a solid place in the horror movie genre.

One thing that I really really like about this movie is the characters acted "normal". When they hear strange, suspicious sounds in the middle of the night, they don't bring camcorders, they don't navigate their house with flashlights, they do what anyone would do, they TURN THE LIGHTS ON. That's something that a lot of horror movies don't do nowadays because darkness has always been an effective environment to build tension, but there are times when it just looks illogical to keep the lights off. The Conjuring wasn't afraid to scare in broad daylight. Of course, there are some scenes that demand darkness. And those scenes are the ones you should watch out for.

Acting, pacing, sound effects (much of it was just silence which I think is way more effective), camera panning (those contributed a lot), everything was executed so well that makes this movie one hell of a horror film. I can't say enough how good it was, so just watch it. If you're a horror movie buff (the ghost, possession, exorcism type), who like us have been waiting for that film - that film that will scare you and scare you well - you're in for a treat.

Movie: Sinister

Okay, this is a first. Not that it's the first movie that I've ever watched, just the first movie that I'll be reviewing.

Sinister:
 

Hubby has been telling me about this new horror flick, which he said looks promising. We are somewhat horror-movie fanatics, with me favoring the ghost-ridden ones and him, the bloody gory varieties (Well, not always. He just really like the Saw franchise. A lot).

But more often than not, we are disappointed with how most horror movies turned out. Let's just say, we didn't get scared or "entertained" by most of them. Some felt like a rehashed of other movies even if the stories were different and others, if they didn't suffer from predictable plots or bad plots to begin with, were more of a comedy than a horror movie. Honestly, there were quite a few movies where instead of trembling with fear and being scared shit out of our brains, we were laughing our hearts out.

So. I finally saw the trailer of Sinister when we watched Taken 2. The movie looked solid and prompted me to checked its rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I thought it was good enough. I didn't checked on IMDB because I didn't want run into spoilers.

I went to see the movie armed with the knowledge that the main character, played by Ethan Hawke, is a writer and that they moved to a house where a family was murdered before. The trailer seemed to suggest that it's the house that's haunted and it's the daughter that's possessed, or at least she will play a key role in the haunting/possession/whatever it is that will take place in the house.

The movie opened to a good appetizer of a scene, setting a mood with intrigue and an impending horror. But as it unraveled, it became fairly predictable quicker than I expected. Which was a bad thing for me, because I love figuring out horror movies. More than the jumpy scenes and scare tactics, a good horror movie for me is where I am caught unaware of the plot twists and how it got there. Halfway through the movie, I knew I was bored.

And I kept asking hubby why in most horror movies, they won't turn the lights on. Would be a lot creepier if Ethan's character turned the light on and the ghost appeared an inch away from his face DESPITE the light. They should learn to do ghost makeup that looks good in the light.

If there's one thing that I liked about Sinister, it's the musical score. It's, well, very sinister and lent the necessary eerie background to some of the supposedly scary scenes (with that, I think there were just two). The ending was not happy but something that you knew would happen.

I really want to discuss more points about the movie but I couldn't find a way to do so without giving spoilers. So. Overall, it's okay I guess. Certainly not something that will keep me awake at night or spawn nightmares inside my head. Not something that will rank high up on my top horror movies list and not something that I will recommend to someone who wants more than the usual hair-raising movie experience. But I still think it's a decent horror movie.