One of the fun things about the Insidious franchise is that none of the lore matters in any way. There's a place where all the evil dead people go and they like messing with the living: now you're all caught up.
In fact, remembering the previous five films only gets in the way of the spooky thrills here - you don't want to be wondering what happened to Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell's low-rent Ghostbusters when you should be scanning every inch of the screen for creepy figures in the background that shouldn't be there.
After a prologue that makes it very clear she had a very messed-up childhood, we meet the adult Gemma (Amelia Eve), who is making a whole lot of very basic life mistakes when it comes to living in a world where evil ghosts are real.
Not only is she still living in the house where her crazy mother killed herself, she has all her mum's stuff boxed up in the garage, refusing to either deal with it or throw it out. Even worse, she's a dental nurse; if you're at all squeamish about teeth, there are multiple scenes here that are not for you.
Despite that, everything seems to be going smoothly for her and her daughter Maya (Island Austin) on the streets of suburban Melbourne (pretending to be Pittsburgh) until a very odd-looking trio of weirdos move into the neighbourhood and start grinning at her. Suddenly she's having the kind of nightmares that blend seamlessly with reality, Maya is starting to freak out at the way her mother is falling apart, and is history about to repeat itself?
Not if Elise Rayne (Lin Shaye) has anything to do with it. Being dead hasn't stopped the psychic from stepping up in previous installments - she's the only real link to the other films here - and when she shows up in one of Gemma's dreams it's clear that what the single mother's experiencing isn't just the result of a too-spicy late night snack.
Not only is she being pulled into The Further (the place where evil ghosts hang out), but the malevolent yet snazzily-dressed spirits have a serious reason for their interest in her. Now if she doesn't figure out a way to stop them, they just might be able to use her as a way back into the real world. Which would be bad for just about everyone, especially as it seems some ghosts come with working shotguns (are the guns also dead?).
None of this is especially fresh or though-provoking, but it does hold together as a story. That bumps it a notch above the usual "ghosts are real and / or people are being possessed" Blumhouse thriller. The random jumpscare sequences early on have a point to them, the bad guy has an actual plan beyond "be scary", and there's just enough twists to get you moderately invested in the outcome.
In a great year for inventive horror, this competent but overly familiar thriller only occasionally rises to the challenge. There are a few memorable sequences (getting lost in a seemingly endless couch cushion fort, some squirmy dental horror) and exactly one decent joke. There's also a lot of tattoo'd fruit, which makes less sense the more you think about it, even if Elise's conduit to the land of the living is a psychic tattoo artist (Maisie Richardson-Sellars).
As it's gone on, the Insidious series has lost the giddy edge that made the initial installments stand out. Now the scares are merely solid, the characters basic and rote; even if you don't remember the previous films, you'll feel like you've seen it all before. It's a nightmare where even the living are trapped in an eternal repetitious loop.
- Anthony Morris
No comments:
Post a Comment