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Insidious: Chapter 2
| Released |
13 September 2013 |
| Director |
James Wan |
Starring
|
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Steve Coulter, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Andrew Astor |
| Writer(s) |
Leigh Whannell |
| Producer(s) |
Jason Blum, Oren Peli |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
105 minutes |
| Genre |
Horror, thriller |
| Rating |
15A |
|
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Shitefest.
Picking up literally moments from where 2010’s Insidious left off, writer-director James Wan places us in the company of the ill-fated Lambert family once more for a lazy, money grabbing failsafe that is stylistically ten steps backwards for him, following the huge success of The Conjuring a couple of months ago.
It’s almost pointless going into plot particulars because each storyline is as calamitous and convoluted as the next, but the gist is that the Lambert’s have moved into grandma Lorraine’s while the police investigate the death of paranormal specialist Elise. The haunting continues, and the family begin to wonder if father Josh brought something back with him from The Further when he went for an astral wander at the end of the last film. Ghosthunting comic relief duo Tucker and Specs return for some mystery solving with a dice-wielding expert in tow, but with this muddled material the gag grows old very quickly. There’s also a groan worthy time travel plot in there somewhere and by the time we reach the “Here’s Johnny!” moment you’ve lost all interest in what these characters are doing and why we’re supposed to care about them. Insidious 2 eventually ties itself up in scattershot plotlines and awkward dialogue, and you’ll want to make a swift exit long before the end – not out of terror but boredom and confusion.
Wan knows his way around a camera, and there are a couple of passable scares, but mostly they feel phoned in for a quick buck. Honestly, the eventual appearance of the trailer-featured Lady in White feels like something out of Goosebumps. It’s laughable, and not in a good way. While the first Insidious eventually descended into a farfetched dream landscape in its final act, it at least delivered solid psychological scares and a moderate level of eeriness for the most part, here; effective tension is broken far too often by cluttered plots and non sequiturs.
It’s disappointing that a horror vet like Wan had such a big hand in the development of this film. It feels every inch a rookie-helmed, signed-off on studio failure.
This is one chapter best left unread. Naff.
- Cathal Prendergast |
