Review of Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) by Bobbytomorow — 24 Jun 2015

I should start by saying that I was not the hugest fan of Insidious to begin with although I did find it better than average and decent, just not great. The sequel however is the epitome of why most sequels do not work, Insidious 2 is just a mess. First strike is that this movie cannot stand on its own, viewing of the first Insidious is absolutely required if you are to understand the plot or care about any of the characters. Insidious 2 starts where the first left off only the characters are not familiar in the sense that this franchise is beloved or well known so that when we start here, even if you have seen the first, you just do not care about anyone in this film...child, women or otherwise. I think the creator is banking on fanboy success in that you are already familiar with all of the characters and thus interested in their progression. Even then, the characters here are wire thin as far as development goes...I will say that the actors portraying the young versions of the primary cast in flashback scenes were marvellous. It is obvious there is a lot of love here, as far as the making of, but it is too much to ask of the audience to be equally enthusiastic about this franchise as the creators are.

On paper everything is decent, solid acting, direction and script ... but as I mentioned only if you either JUST finished the first Insidious or are a huge fan of the first Insidious....otherwise this movie comes across as just a mess of stuff happening to characters you do not care about.