The James Wan haunted house thrill ride that was Insidious came as something of a surprise; not in the sense that people were like, "oh, Insidious, how did that get there?", but in the sense that it was actually a pretty good horror flick, and nobody really expected it to be. Sure, it owed much of its allegiance to '80s horror classics like Poltergeist, but for the most part it was damned scary. A shame about Insidious 2, then, which was just lame. It was also rather inessential as far as sequels go - the twist ending apparent in the first film didn't need expanding on, really, and Insidious 2 failed to justify its existence as a result, despite the fact that original cast members Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne opted to reprise their roles. The next entry in the series couldn't temp them back, apparently, and is set to shift the focus to a bunch of secondary characters that don't deserve their own movie.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
