Duveteux

My criticism is that this instalment is a little too serious for an Insidious film. The films have always felt a bit like an inside joke to me, as the first was a parody of Poltergeist. The themes in this one are trauma, mental illness, and depression and it is heavier and even grainier to show that they're no longer kidding.

However, in the cinema at least it was an incredibly intense watch. I was squirming in my seat. All of the jumpscares made me jump, the tension was built adequately without being ludicrous like the former films (which I like by the way! But it was a nice change of pace). And there are some jokes and some comic relief.

It's a really solid debut from Patrick. He's learned a lot of great tricks and has somehow left out the gimmicks (Insidious is just a gimmick though so again I return to it feeling a bit too serious).

The ending isn't what I wanted it to be without any spoilers. I know the entire film is based around Josh reconciling with Dalton but it did lack emotion without any real sense of peril. It all seemed a bit easy towards the end.

I liked it! It's a good film.

I can totally see why this wouldn't appeal to some people, but I think the reviews that say nothing happens are unfair. Quite a bit happens, and there are some genuinely creepy scenes and sights and I felt tense and it got to me.

I grew up in the 90s and I still own the same VHS tape that the kids are watching (The Cobweb Hotel is a 1936 cartoon and yet for some reason it was clearly prominent in kids lives in the 90s!) in the film which added something for me! It tapped into some genuine childhood fears I had. My parents going missing and something lurking in the darkness were certainly high up on my list of the most horrifying things.

I'm not one of those people that needs things neatly tied up for me. I'm quite happy with a bit of obscurity and some things left up to my own imagination and left for me to decipher, but I get that not everyone appreciates that either.