When you are making a horror movie it always helps to have a few things around in the movie in order to help set the mood. Things like creaky old doors, a piano, and preferably an old and creepy looking house. Now these are not absolutes, but they can help for sure. Horror movies are not like other movies, because there are so many possibilities for sequels, just look at the "Friday the 13th" series. In 2011 James Wan and Leigh Whannell brought us "Insidious", a story about a family that had unwelcome visitors in their house. The supernatural kind.
That family, the Lamberts, have gotten away from their house and the experience they had in it. Josh (Patrick Wilson), Renai (Rose Byrne), and their three children are all safe and move in with Josh's mom. At the beginning of the film you find out this is not Josh's fist experience with a sprit. It seems Josh has a gift where he sees dead people and with the help from Elise (Lin Shaye) he forgets that gift, until he uses it again to save his son from a place the living shouldn't be. That place I imagine is the same place Carol Anne from "Poltergeist" was in as well, but instead of talking through a TV, a tin can phone is used to communicate to the other side. Renai senses something is not right about Josh, a sentiment that is shared by Josh's mother as well. So with the help from a man named Carl (Steve Coulter) and two guys who provide the comic relief, they all set out to free Josh and his family from the evil that haunts them.
The story picks up exactly where the first film ended, which makes the chapter 2 a perfect title. There are so many more possible chapters to this story, because let's face it there are a lot of ghosts out there. "Insidious: Chapter 2" is part ghost story and part detective story, as we try to unravel what is following the Lamberts around. Lucky, unlike what he did with "Saw" we are still under the direction of James Wan and he keeps us on the same path as the first film. If you are going for jump out of your seat frights, then this is not the film for you. There are some moments that may make you jump a little, thanks to some good camera work, but this movie is more like "Seven" than say, "The Conjuring". In a genre that seems to be getting everything right at the moment, "Insidious: Chapter 2" doesn't disappoint. The only thing that could improve, is to have a little less common sense moments, you know those moments where a character does the thing everyone knows they shouldn't. I think it is very fitting to release this film on Friday the 13th, because like that franchise, you hope this one also has a long life making us afraid to sleep with the lights off.
Brian Taylor
http://the2cinemen.blogspot.com/
