Review of Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) by Dan H — 05 Mar 2016

Insidious Chapter 2 does away with the haunted house style of filmmaking and instead decides to try its hand at being a supernatural thriller. It fails. It is incredibly stupid, silly, and campy (Confusingly, there is also A LOT of found footage style shots).

The script is of a fairly poor quality. I do appreciate that it explains what we saw occur at the end of the first film, but everything else about this film is just not good. Insidious Chapter 2 tries to wrap up all the loose ends from the first film, but does so in a clumsy manner so that it gets caught in it's own strings (embarrassing.

The last act is very confusing and nonsensical as well. We also spend too much time in The Further.). Insidious Chapter 2 does try to be scary, atmospheric, and creepy, but fails. The humor here doesn't usually work (There was some attempts at humor in the previous film, but it feels like there is more here and that they are trying harder.

It just doesn't work). Insidious Chapter 2 is a large step down from it's predecessor. This sequel seems to be heavily watered down to appeal to mass audience, a big mistake. It feels like James Wan and team are playing around with ideas and ways to make this film different (and indeed, Insidious Chapter 2 does feel almost playful at times), but unfortunately nothing really gels together, the ending is VERY dissatisfying, and I only got chills or scared a handful of times.

I also didn't like the backstory of The Black Bride from the first film here (Guess what? It's silly, stupid, and campy....just like the film itself). Let's not draw this thing out any longer: Insidious Chapter 2 is not a good film.

This could have been a really interesting and scary ride, but somewhere something went wrong (maybe Wan and crew's hearts just weren't in it this time around). When you look back at what came before, you can't help but leave very, very disappointed.

What a shame.