Insidious: Chapter 2
I’m going to be honest: director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell had me nervous for a while as I was watching “Insidious: Chapter 2,” and it wasn’t the good nervous one should feel in watching a horror movie. They hit the ground running with the shocks and suspense, whereas, in their terrific 2011 original, they built things up slowly, let us know the characters, and let us get drawn in. For the first 45 minutes or so of the film, I was concerned they were going to give in to the genre’s worst tendencies, and just make a “bigger = better, dumber = more $$” sequel.
I should have given them more credit, especially after Wan hit it out of the park this summer with “The Conjuring.” Yes, it has some shaky moments, and even as it gets closer to the edge-of-your-seat finale, it starts to strain some credulity, but Wan and Whannell have some ingenious ideas the push the film into truly dark and terrifying territory, and even top the original film in emotional wallop. It isn’t enough for them to scare the pants off of you, but to make you care about these characters, and go on this journey with them, and they succeed marvelously at that. Hopefully, even with Wan going off to direct “Fast and Furious 7,” it won’t take them too long to get “Chapter 3” made, and yes, there’s plenty of juice left for a third one.
The film starts in the past, in 1986, when Lorraine Lambert calls on Elise (Lin Shaye) to help with her son, Josh, who has been experiencing some particularly bad dreams, and has had a supernatural presence following him, as is clear by some photographs Lorraine has taken. Elise questions Josh, and is led up to his room, where she is attacked by the presence, leading her to offer her services to Lorraine to help Josh forget his dreams, and his ability to converse with these spirits. We then fast-forward to 2011, and Josh has just returned from the spirit world, known as the Further, to retrieve his son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), who had been led too far from his corporeal body by a malevolent spirit who trapped him. However (**Spoiler Alert** if you haven’t seen the first film yet), Josh did not make it back to his body, and instead, the presence that haunted him in his youth– a woman in a black wedding dress –has taken over, and killed Elise when she discovered the truth. And so, while Josh’s wife, Renai (Rose Byrne), and their children try to move on with their lives, something seems off about Josh (Patrick Wilson)…and the disturbances that plagued them in the first film haven’t stopped. That leads Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) to investigate with Elise’s helpers, Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson), and to call an old acquaintance of Elise’s (Carl, played by Steve Coulter) for help solve this mystery.
The big inspiration that moves “Insidious: Chapter 2” from the “good” to “great” category in terms of horror sequels comes at around the halfway mark, when Lorraine, Specs, Tucker, and Carl try to get a hold of Elise from the great beyond, and embark on a journey that will reveal not only who the “bride in black” Josh was haunted by is, but what can be done to get rid of her, and get Josh, stuck in the Further, back into his body. Meanwhile, Renai is home with this imposter Josh, uncertain of what’s wrong with him, and struggling to deal with the paranormal anomalies haunting the house. The Renai scenes have more than a faint whiff of similar moments from the first “Insidious,” but as we learn more during the hunt Lorraine and co. are on, the more tense things get in the Renai scenes. Finally, the two stories are reunited in a finale that not only had me reveling in the inspiration Wan and Whannell displayed as storytellers, but surprised by how much emotion the film elicited from me, as Renai and her family, and Dalton in particular, have to make bold decisions to stay alive while “Josh” goes all Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” on Renai and the kids. (The fact that I can make that comparison with a straight face is a credit to Wilson, who plays wicked stepfather, as it were, quite well.)
It’s a rare horror sequel that can stand up with the original– it usually takes a powerful, potent voice, and a delicious hook, to do so, and thankfully for us, Wan and Whannell have both. As with the first film (and “The Conjuring” for Wan), “Insidious: Chapter 2” is a master class in building up tension, and releasing it at just the right moment for maximum effect, and even if this doesn’t do that quite as well as the first film (although I would have loved to have seen it with an opening weekend audience to see its reaction), Wan; his cinematographer (John R. Leonetti); his editor (Kirk M. Morri); his composer (Joseph Bishara); and his sound designers and special effects artists bring all of those elements together for an expert use of sight and sound that results in a devious little thriller that reminds us why we’re afraid of the dark, and worry, when we’re kids, about things that go bump in the night. Befitting the first word of its title, “Insidious: Chapter 2” gets under your skin, and digs into your brain, making you look twice next time you come around a dark corner.
