Review: Insidious Chapter 2 (2013)

Disclaimer:  Even though I saw 95% of the movie, I had to endure loud ass people in the row behind us throughout the entire movie.  Instead of making a scene or starting an argument/fight by telling them the obvious... which was to shut the fuck up; I went to the theatre staff.  Two people came in stood there, the first time, the rude assfaces shut up, because they knew what was up since the staff was less than subtle.  The second time, they just stood there through all of the, "Ahhh shit"s and "Oh no she didn't"s (I'm not making this up, these were real breathing human beings that had turned into stereotypes I wouldn't dare write into any fiction due to them being so fucking cliche).  My experience with the movie was less that stellar as a result.  I hope this doesn't affect my review.  If you live in or near Evansville, IN, avoid Showplace East, since they're full of gutless babies that can't do their fucking jobs, which isn't hard. I also had the same experience with Friday the 13th reboot and boycotted them for a while.  They had a really convenient showing time, so I rolled the dice this time... and I came up snake eyes.

So Insidious 1 was a bit of a hit, and admittedly was good for a PG-13 horror film.  What started off as a typical haunted house flick turned into an astral projection film that had quite a bit of character, which made up for the slow start and lack of gore. The slow start made it feel a little like an older horror movie.  I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but no promises.

Insidious Chapter 2 starts out with the events right after the first movie.  Josh had been taken over by the seldom seen old woman that followed him as a child.  Insidious 1 was about the Lipstick Faced Demon following Josh's son, this movie is all about the old woman that followed Josh as a child.  I'm getting ahead of myself a little, the movie actually begins in the past where Elise (the medium from the first movie, who is, spoiler alert if you haven't seen 1, strangled by a possessed Josh) is investigating the original incident.  This scene is played out in a creepy way, and sets some plot points up for later in the movie.

Josh is still possessed in the beginning of the movie.  His wife, Renai, sees the picture, but as we assumed she knew what it meant at the end of the first movie, that Josh was possessed; she doesn't know how to interpret the photo. This makes sense given all of the photos that have the old woman from his childhood in the background.  She merely thought that this was the case and only thought that the haunting wasn't over, not that her husband is the old woman in Josh's skin.  She slowly starts to realize what's up and craziness ensues.

They seem to hide the face that the kids from the first movie have aged, and I think they just got a new baby to give the appearance that no time has pasted between the movies.  Basically the entire cast returns, with the addition of a new medium, Carl, that called Elise when he felt he was out of his league when Josh was a child.  He's an interesting character that has a creepy, nail biting exchange with the possessed Josh later in the film ('What does Josh have behind his back').

The physical presence of Josh makes the movie a bit scarier in some parts than the original.  Instead of something that is basically fantasy scaring people, it's a decently sized guy with a weapon trying to break the door down to kill children and a woman.  The Further stuff is used less, but just as effectively considering the content.  The ghosts that Josh and co. go up against are never as imposing as the Demon from the first film, but they try and for the most part succeed.  There are time traveling elements in The Further that are never fully explained, but you just roll with it.

I didn't have high expectations for this film.  The first film grew on me after a while, and my favorite villain from the first movie didn't truly show up in this film.  I know this was more of Josh's story than Dalton's this time around, so it's understandable that they would use The Dark Bride as the main protagonist.  Not to ruin the plot, but the back story for Dark Bride, is messed up. The PG-13 is a pushed a little bit and given the content, even a soft R might have helped the movie a little bit.

When the Blu Ray comes out, I may do an extended review that talks about that back story in spoiler filled detail.

Insidious Chapter 2 lives up to the original's quality and feels like the second half of the first movie.  I know some reviews have given it a hard time, but one of those reviews talks about how they loved The Conjuring, which I didn't think was amazing or anything (maybe I'll review that later). If you liked or loved the first movie, this one won't disappoint.  I think some of the scares work better in this film, but occasionally it starts to become a bit cliched.  The mystery element of the film is interesting and didn't exist in any way in the first movie, which makes it stand out on it's own.

8 out of 10 psychic dice

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