Rental Review - Insidious: Chapter 2

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), PG-13, 106 minutes - Last fall when this film was released, my wife (fiance at the time) and I still hadn't seen the original from 2010.  We made sure to sit down and watch it in preparation for this sequel (my review for it can be seen here).  We then got caught up in the final stages of wedding/honeymoon planning and missed Chapter 2 in theaters.  A couple of weeks ago we finally had the opportunity to sit down and give this one a watch.

Insidious: Chapter 2 is a direct sequel to the first film and picks up right where the first one ends.  That being said, as spoiler friendly as I try to be, if you haven't seen Insidious yet read no further as some spoilery stuff is imminent.

Chapter 2 continues the story of the Lamberts, a family with deep and strong ties to the spirit world.  They have seemingly been victorious in their attempt to save their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) from the spirit world after learning that his father Josh (Patrick Wilson) had the same ability to cross over into that world.  What they don't realize though, is that something followed Josh back and it continues to reek havoc on the family.  Renai (Rose Byrne) notices the strange haunting occurrences beginning again but has little luck convincing Josh that the family is still in danger.  She enlists Josh's mother (Barbara Hershey) and the assistants of the paranormal investigator Elise (Lin Shaye) - who had helped them previously.  While searching through Elise's old case files for Josh, they uncover a deeper, darker tie that he has to the spirit world and they go about trying to severe the connection that threatens to banish him in the spirit world forever.

Insidious: Chapter 2 probably has about he same number of jump/flinch in your seat seat moments and certainly carries on the creepiness factor that the original had.  While I felt that the final third of the first film had a bit of a cheap and cheesy factor to it in Dalton's dealings with the spirit world, I think I prefer the story line in this film, elaborating on Josh's connection to the spirit world and why the Lambert family continues to be haunted.  Quite often it seems like horror franchises spawn sequel after sequel with varying degrees of success of tying them all together.  Chapter 2 was a logical progression from the first film.  What will be interesting to see will be whether or not a third installment is made (director James Wan has said that he is done directing horror films for the time being - his next directing project is the next installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise).  The door was certainly left open for that possibility.