Release date: September 13th, 2013
Director: James Wan
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Film Pulse Score: 5/10
When looking at Insidious: Chapter 2, there’s two fundamental obstacles writer/director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell had to contend with at the onset. The filmmakers needed to create a chilling story filled with the same amount of terror of the first, without returning to the same well resulting in a stale concept. They also needed to at least keep within the same tone as the original without straying too much from the formula in order to give the audience what they want. Unfortunately, the end result is a mashup of both tired concepts and interesting, yet ultimately disappointing new material.
The film picks up directly where the first left off, with the Lambert family once again being terrorized by a pissed off spirit. The first act of the film plays out like a retread of Insidious 1, with plenty of jump scares and creepiness, however at this point everything feels played out. The film as a whole is not nearly as atmospheric or horrifying, but the first third is a bore.
The second act introduces a very interesting twist into the story though, and it begins to pick up the pace. While some may scoff at the direction it takes, effectively devaluating the original, I thought the idea was refreshing and brought a new perspective on why certain events were taking place.
As the suspense ramped up however, so did the ridiculous nature of the plot. Some of the supernatural occurrences are downright laughable, and come off as being more silly than scary. This is extremely unfortunate, given the fact that The Conjuring just came out two months ago and pulled this concept off without a hitch.
By far the best aspect of the film is the portrayal of the two bumbling paranormal investigators played by Leigh Whannel and Angus Sampson. In addition to bringing the comic relief, their characters are simply more interesting than everyone else in the movie. The last 5 minutes of the film show the duo taking on their next job, which, in addition to essentially giving us a teaser of the next entry, was more interesting than everything that took place before it.
Insidious: Chapter 2 had some big shoes to fill after the success of the original and The Conjuring, however it didn’t live up to those in any way. Yes, there are some solid scares and some interesting concepts at work, but overall it felt like we’ve seen this all before. If the filmmakers eliminated the first act and expanded the events of the second, it probably would have come off as a solid and unique sequel. Unfortunately, they stuck to the formula too closely and the final product is kind of a mess.
