“Insidious: Chapter 2” is the sequel to James Wan’s suspenseful horror film from 2010. The movies star Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, a couple and their family haunted by a darker world of the undead trying to infiltrate the world of the living. The sequel picks right up where the first movie left off and does a solid job tying up loose ends, but ultimately falls flat in the scare and suspense department.
At the end of the first film, Josh Lambert’s (Wilson) body has been occupied by an evil spirit, The Bride in Black, while trying to rescue his son from the undead realm called “The Further”. The sequel emphasizes on his spirit trying to make contact with his family and out the imposter in his body, which continues to decay as the evil spirit inhabits it.
The root cause of the family’s haunting along with the tragic backstory of the dead spirits is explored in interesting, multi-faceted detail but is very easily lost on an audience that isn’t paying the utmost attention to the screen. Wan intertwines the spirit world and the living world in an interesting time-loop that will leave fans of the first movie with a greater understanding of the stranger events from the first chapter.
Unfortunately, because so much time is spent explaining backstory and weaving together plot elements from the first movie, the scares in the movie suffer. “Insidious: Chapter 2” is strong in downright creepy moments, but lacks in the jumpy thrills that were so strong in the first movie. Still, the movie is a solid continuation of the original story and previous fans will enjoy this resolution to the Lambert family’s haunting.
“Insidious: Chapter 2” is rated PG-13 for thematic elements including intense sequences of terror and violence.
