The sequel's not bad; it's not slovenly. Some of the jolts are effectively staged and filmed, and Wan is getting better and better at figuring out what to do with the camera, and maneuvering actors within a shot for maximum suspense, while letting his design collaborators do the rest. But Leigh Whannell's script is a bit of a jumble.
If you were a fan of the first, you will love the second installment
The movie picks up right where the first left off, and really gives you the back story of the family and why they are going through everything they are going through. They style is very similar, and there is so much originality and style that you just don't see with today's modern horror story flicks. There are plenty of scares, plot twists, surprises, a-ha moments, and plenty of tense moments and horror. I really enjoyed it just as much as the first. I got to see The Ultimate Insidious Experience which was a back to back double feature which was really cool to refresh what had happened in the first. There are moments that explain cleverly scenes that didn't make sense in the beginning but are cleverly resolved in the end. I have always loved the first Insidious and the second is equally as good in my book. If you didn't like the first, you won't like the second. It's just a great spooky, scary, haunted house, ghost, abandoned hospital story that is well-done and leaves you very satisfied at the end. They leave it open for further sequels that are sure to follow. A definite must-see for any horror movie fan.
How rare is it that a sequel is better than the classic hit it's based on? Pretty rare, but Insidious 2 gets everything right and even enhances the original, which is just what a good sequel needs to do. It explains just about every single thing that's happened and why, which is a definite plus for this kind of stylistic movie. The secondary antagonist from movie 1 becomes the primary in this follow up, which isn't surprising, but watching it happen was freaking awesome. Not many movies can hold your interest like this one and its predecessor.
Even before Wilson goes full Jack Torrance and Barbara Hershey shows up to investigate an abandoned hospital Scooby-Doo-style, one could technically call this sequel a gorefest—thanks to the guts of every other horror movie being splattered across the screen.
A full realization of the very worst fears one could imagine when its director, James Wan, unexpectedly emerged from the torture-porn murk with its original, spiritedly directed predecessor.
Insidious: Chapter 2 is perhaps an even more scattershot mess than its predecessor. Whannell's script is so rife with portentous backstory, third-act goofiness, and a denouement that practically screams "Insidious 3: Same Old Shit," that the film as a whole is jarring, and not in a good way.
This movie like the other one isn't scare at all, sometimes is ridiculous, the story just like the other one doesn't make sense sometimes, it has the same mistakes than the other one, if you doesn't like the other one do not expect that one to be better...
One of the most lazy and unthoughtful films I have ever had the displeasure to see. Is it a horror film? A comedy? A family drama about redemption? I wish I knew. The film is constantly trying to fit all of the above categories into a film that is so conceited that it leaves you feeling disoriented and annoyed. The movie isn't fun; and it isn't scary either. All of the thrill and scares that the movie tries to bring in come from cheap scares that come from overly loud sounds and somewhat disturbing visuals. The plot makes no sense; even after seeing the first one when it came out, I was left wondering what I was watching. The characters are flat; it's almost as if the director and writer didn't even try to come up with something original. The climax to the film is a weird mixture between The Sixth Sense and The Shining that left me bored and slightly shocked that someone could be so unoriginal. Patrick Wilson plays the only redeemable character in the film, but James Wan's directing is so bad, that Mr. Wilson comes off as a second rate Jack Nicholson from The Shining... only without everything that made The Shining so good.
Unless you are a fourteen year old and feel like getting some cheap thrills off of your allowance money, or you're an adult and like my friends, drink booze during the film, you're not going to enjoy Insidious: Chapter 2. I wish I didn't pay full price for this. I wish I didn't even watch it. Horrendous film making; It saddens me to see the horror genre fall to this, and see people give high ratings to a movie as lazy as this.
Production Company
FilmDistrict,
Stage 6 Films,
Entertainment One,
Blumhouse Productions,
Alliance,
Room 101,
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA)