Insidious Chapter 2

In the first Insidious film, we are introduced to the Lambert family as they are settling into their new home. Their son, Dalton, goes off to the attic to investigate some sounds, falls and hurts himself. He seems alright when he goes to sleep, but the next morning he doesn't wake. Three months later, the family is bringing Dalton, still in a coma, home and strange things begin happening around the house. At first they believe the house may be haunted, but after they move to a new home and the strange things keep happening, they learn their son is what is haunted.

The most interesting element of the first film is this idea of the haunted person. In this case, Dalton has the ability to astral project, to walk through spirit worlds while he is asleep. Spirits in those worlds have noticed him and followed him home, and they are trying to enter his body, to return to life. Unfortunately, the movie plays a little too slow, and doesn't explain things enough.

But this review isn't about that film. It's about the sequel, Insidious: Chapter 2.

James Wan returns to direct, Leigh Whannell returns to write, and Oren Peli returns to produce. And all of the actors return to reprise their roles as well. Even the kids, which is kind of weird since kids often age rather rapidly, but I didn't really notice a huge change.

Taking place immediately after the end of the prior film, with Renai Lambert being questioned by police about the events of the night before, when Elise Ranier was killed. Her husband is a suspect, and we know he did it, but the photo that Elise took just before her death of Josh actually shows the frightening woman in black instead. With no physical evidence to tie Josh to the murder, he is released and they return home. Or rather, they go to Josh's mother's house, where they plan to stay until things get sorted out.

At the end of the last film, we learned that Josh could astral project as a child as well, and it had caused problems, so they'd made him forget. To save his son, Josh had had his ability awoken. Early on in this new film, we find that there were spirits after Josh all this time that had just been waiting for him to open himself back up.

Insidious: Chapter 2 relies on the same sort of jump scares, figures appearing in the background and strange noises that the first film did, but it managed to execute them far better than the original, resulting in a true feeling of escalating danger. The comedy here is also far better incorporated into the movie. While in the first the humor sometimes would eject you from immersion in the story, in this sequel the humor actually serves to pull you further in because the humor comes from moments when the characters act the way we ourselves might act rather than the usual way people in horror movies are dumb. Specs and Tucker, well loathed from the first film, have a triumphant return and play much better here.

Oddly enough, this sequel also serves to make the original better. I don't want to spoil it and say how, but it seems clear that the people behind these films actually planned both at the same time and it all works better as a whole.

Still, I wouldn't call this a great horror film, but I would definitely say I was satisfied at the end. I'd recommend renting or buying the first film and watching it before you head to the theater to see Insidious: Chapter 2.