Textual Analysis of Insidious: Chapter 2 By sian knight
Flashback to 25 years ago. Something is haunted Josh Lambert, (Lorraine’s son). Elise is called to the house as she is a medium, she hypnotizes Josh and attempts to find his “friend” who has been appearing in the photographs of Josh. Josh warns Elise not to go to his bedroom closet, however she goes there and gets a scratch on her arm. They then decide to make Josh forget what has happened. In the present, Renai (Josh’s wife) is being questioned about Elise’s death. The Lamberts decided to relocate to Lorraine’s house, however Renai sees strange occurrences happening in the house. She suspects that Josh has the old women living in her like Dalton did in the first film. Renai sees a women dressed in white in the living room – she gets knocked unconscious. Lorraine goes to see Elise's co-workers to get an explanation, they try to contact Elsie through dices, and get a hospital name, which they go to and then Lorraine remembers Parker. They go to Parkers old house and find 15 corpse in a secret room will newspaper articles of “The Bride In Black” who kidnapped and murdered people while dressed as a women. Then it is revealed that its Parkers mother speaking through the dice. They know that Josh is possessed by Parker. Carl goes to contact Josh in a different world, they meet and go to find Elise, they get directed to Josh’s old house where Parker is tormenting Josh’s daughter, Josh fights with the spirt but Elise banishes it. In the real world, Josh, Carl and Elsie go to Parkers house where they see his mother; the women in white abusing him by raising him as a girl. Parker killed those girls at the beset of his mothers spirt. Elise saves Josh and he returns to the real world and it is all forgotten.
Symbolic / Macro Elements – Narrative Codes and Conventions Insidious Chapter Two is an Psychological horror because it relies on characters fear, guilt, emotional instability and the supernatural. It also involves a family moving to a new location and a new house. However, instead of the house having the bad history like most horrors it is the family that have the bad history. The protagonist plays the same plot as they did before but with different twists.
haracter Codes and Convention – Symbolic / Macro element The final girl in insidious chapter two is Elise because she is the lady who confronts the killer (Parker). She is also shown as being weak because she is a spirt and died in the first film.
Narrative Codes and Convention – Symbolic / Marco element
Dalton is the hero because he goes into the other world and rescues his dad. Parker is the villain because he cause’s pain and torment to the protagonist’s, however because it was Parkers mother telling him to kill the girls she would also be a villain. Elise’s co-workers and Elise are the helpers this is because Lorraine goes to Elise’ co-workers for help and then they go to Elise’s spirt for help. Josh and the girls that Parker murdered are victims because they was / are at the mercy of the villain.
Props and Signifiers Codes and Convention – Symbolic / macro element
Josh is lost in different world with fog that has people coming towards him. The use of fog makes the character become disorientated and blocks the audience from seeing what the protagonist sees e.g. the people. Because the fog is used it makes the audience concentrate on the protagonists (Josh) emotions. Parker has dolls in his room this illustrates the torment that Parker went through as a child.
Editing Codes and Conventions – Technical/micro element There is not much editing within Insidious. However there are some editing for example, when Renai is in the living room and she walks around there is not woman sitting on the sofa but when she walks across a woman has appeared. They edit this by using two clips and overlapping them so they appear. They use parallel editing my showing stories that are happening at the same time like when Josh is trapped in the mortal world and Dalton is in the real life.
Diegetic and Non Diegetic sound Codes and Conventions – Technical/micro elements Diegetic sound is sound that you would hear if you was in the scene, for example the baby monitor and the piano. The use of the baby’s toys making sound when no one is there creates tension because it shows that the ghost is going to target the baby next. Also the piano playing a slow song is used to create tension because I gets louder and louder as Renai gets closer to it, and when she gets there is stops as no one is there. This is called tension and release. Non diegetic sound is sound that you wouldn’t hear if you was in the scene for example music. The use of music when Lorraine and Elise’s co-workers are trying to reach Elise’s it starts of slow and quiet an gets louder and louder as the scene goes on this makes the audience think something bad is going to happen.
Moreover, when the go to the hospital that is no longer in use, the music gets louder and louder and when they reach Parkers room Lorraine has a flash back and the music stops. This creates suspense as the music has stopped and silence is used. Silence is the most powerful sound that can be used because the audience feel on edge as they don’t know when something bad is going to happen.
Mise En Scene Codes and Conventions – Technical/micro element The use of old fashion clothing shows the different time periods, and helps the audience understand the flash backs more. Furthermore because the people have white faces compared to the characters in the modern world it makes them look more like ghosts / spirts. The use of dark lighting when in the spirt world creates fear as the audience does not know what is in the darkness. Also the use of red lighting connotes danger which creates more fear for the audience as they understand that something bad is going to happen they just don’t know when and what it is going to be. Hospital / asylum is used in Insidious this represents Psychotic character and suggests that the patient has been tortured (this is revelled later on in the film). The dark location with red door to the spirt world connotes danger which tells the audience something bad is going to happen. The house that Parker grew up in is another location codes because the house has a dark history of Parker being abused by his mother treating him like a girl. It also shows the murders that the bride in black (Parker) committed. The abuse is
Camera work Codes and Conventions – Technical/micro element In insidious there is a lot of close ups, these are used to show the characters reaction and emotions. In this case it is fear they are showing. An example of this is when Josh is in the sprit world wit the light trying to find a way out. There are also point of views these are used to show the shot through the view of the character which allows the audience to see things how the character would. An example of this is when Dalton looks at his dad (Josh) in the bathroom pulling out teeth.
BBFC Insidious 2 is rating a 15 by the BBFC this is because of the violence that is used such as, a women hitting a man with a hammer and then she gets thrown across the floor. Also Josh pulls teeth out from his mouth.