Insidious: Chapter 2 Reviews

I didn't see the first film but I did see The Conjuring and couldn't help but feel as if the same motifs were only rehashed, including the ever popular "WHAT'S THAT LOUD NOISE!?! ... oh, it's only a child's toy ..." gag, which gets old by the third and fourth time they do it. There's the "is there somebody in the closet, lemme go check ..." gag, too. A C-grade roller coaster ride at best, and easily forg ... er, what was I talking about? The audience of pre-teens I saw it with seemed happily frightened though.

A second suspenseful instalment that doesn't disappoint!
Loved the first and loved this sequel, I love how they interlinked them both!

Let me start by saying that I watched Insidious: Chapter 2 twice in one day. The first time I was fresh from just watching the first Insidious. I was prepared. The first Insidious was unoriginal yet awesomely creepy. On the first viewing I was disappointed yet still entertained. I saw it a second time because a group of friends wanted me to come along, so I did. Yet on the second viewing, the feeling of disappointment stuck. Not only is this movie not very scary, it's "scares" are basically a redo of the first movie's. It leads to nothing. But, that's not to say I didn't have a good time watching it. There's still a large entertainment value and some amazingly campy scenes. You can definitely see where they took their inspiration from on this sequel. It's a mix of The Shining, Psycho and The Exorcist. Overall- It's short on suspense and basically goes nowhere, but Insidious: Chapter 2 still had some fun to be had. Letter Grade: C

It may be far less terrifying , and elements will seem glaringly similar to the first film, but "Insidious: Chapter 2" is a nice wrap up for the events that take place at the end of the first film. There are some questionable moments, followed by some weird acting from a particular actor (who shall remain nameless for spoilers) which seems like terrible writing, until the second half of the film when it all starts to make sense. Like the first, it's clever when it needs to be and the jump scares are definitely there, but only work half of the time. Director James Wan does wonders for the horror genre, in terms of Cinematography, lighting, and set design, but what made the first film so special is just shown again here with not many new techniques. I enjoyed this sequel for what it was and there will undoubtedly be a sequel coming, which I will watch, but I'm not freaking out about it. "Insidious: Chapter 2" has improved performances and a nice enough story to satisfy the fans of the first, but it's ultimately a weaker film all around. Overall, it's a very average horror film with a few clever moments that intrigued me.

I believe that part of what made the first Insidious such a talking point was that noone saw it coming. Like Paranormal Activity before it, it came out with a minimalist advertising campaign that only showed enough to get people interested. However, standards have changed since then, and on the heels of the director's The Conjuring comes Insidious: Chapter 2, charged with the unenviable task of shouldering the weight of its predecessors.

The main fault of the first Insidious film was that it got more unbelievable and less scary as it went on, culminating in a kinda ridiculous final act taking place in purgatory as imagined by overexcited horror buffs. Chapter 2 is at least more consistent in its quality and believability, with no jarring shifts like the one described above. However, what is has in consistency and story, it lacks in scares. While there are certainly some chilling moments, they are nowhere near as frequent as they were inthe first film. This is somewhat disappointing, because James Wan is certainly capable of packing a higher number of scares into the same length of time. And with more subtlety.

As transparent as Casper in an invisibility cloak, this expertly directed deuce offers many scares even if moviegoers can see right through its patently ludicrous ghost story. Beginning with a long but integral prologue, this American Horror Story quickly and effortlessly gets caught back up in the through-line started in Chapter 1. It also gets bogged down in a Scooby Doo Gang ancillary ghost hunt that defines Chapter 2 separately. Thrill seekers need not necessarily have seen the 2011 spooker first to play through. Hell, it's a scary movie--not an Oscar-baiting, convoluted, patchwork ensemble drama...though it acts like one, at times. Relying on blood-curling screams as opposed to blood spraying, this scaremaker isn't big on brains. It does take some talented minds to raise the hairs on the back of your neck this often, however, and all involved surely deliver.

In this PG-13-rated horror flick, the haunted Lambert family (Wilson, Byrne, et al) seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret keeping them dangerously connected to the spirit world.

Having just turned out the somewhat smarter and slightly scarier thriller The Conjuring, director James Wan has proven himself as a ridiculously skillful genre director tenfold. Nothing against the fine cast, but the players he directs matter very little. As Ethan Hawke proved with Sinister (which shares the same producers), any capable name actor pretty much fits the bill. They bring chops, yes, but such exercises in horror come down to creating edge-of-your-seat experiences. Leigh Whannel's script gets increasingly silly as it goes, but Wan sells through some of the B.S.

Bottom line: Polter-Gripes.

James Wan is one of my favorite modern horror directors. All of his movies have this dark, scary tone to them that only he could pull off. I honestly don't think he's made one bad movie. And it is a shame to hear that this will be his last horror movie he'll ever do (I have no interest in seeing Fast and Furious 7. Sorry James). But Insidous: Chapter 2 is still a very creepy movie with plenty of twists and turns, a lot of good scares, and even some witty humor. Yeah, this movie is a bit more comedic than his other films. James Wan is the only guy who could pull off 2 good horror movies within one year. That takes a lot of talent, and I respect him for that. But I do gotta say this is his weakest movie yet. I do think The Conjuring, the first Insidious, Saw, and even Dead Silence are all somewhat better than this movie. It's very good, and scary, don't get me wrong. But it's just not as strong as his previous movies, and I definitely feel like he could make one last movie before he says goodbye to the horror genre. This wasn't a very good last movie, and I feel like he could make another one to make up for this one. But despite the negativity on the film, it still has some genuinely creepy scenes with a very smart plot. It answers a lot of questions the first one left us asking and makes it way more clear now. I do suggest you go see Insidious: Chapter 2, but be aware that its not as strong as his last movies.

If you have yet to watch the first installment of Insidious-in all its bloodcurdling glory-stop reading this, run to your Netflix account or nearest Redbox, and watch it as soon as possible. Then, and only then, should you proceed, because a sequel as cleverly orchestrated as Insidious: Chapter 2 will only be fully appreciated with the first film as a frequent reference.

As a quick refresher, Insidious tells the dark tale of Dalton, the son of Josh and Renai Lambert. Dalton has the ability to astral project, a supernatural power that allows his soul to travel through spiritual planes while he sleeps. A demonic force kidnaps Dalton during one of his projections, and his father is forced to astral project into a spiritual plane, named The Further, to save his son. Although Dalton is rescued, the film ends with the shocking realization that a demon has possessed his father, who proceeds to murder a psychic that aided them throughout the film.

Insidious: Chapter 2 starts off hours after Insidious ends, with Renai Lambert discussing the death of the psychic with a detective, and specifically, the possibility of her husband being the murderer. She remains unconvinced that her husband is capable of such a brutal act, and the family moves on happily unscathed. Only they don't. Supernatural occurrences and ghastly apparitions begin haunting the Lambert family once again. Dalton suspects something is wrong with his father, and as audience members, we are particularly well informed about his father's possession and why the acts of terror do not cease.

As the film progresses, the plot brilliantly thickens with narratives that occur in different time periods, yet also seem to happen simultaneously. As we try making sense of this conundrum, the hauntings and time-travel elements become increasingly mind-boggling. This deeply layered mythology in Insidious: Chapter 2 is what makes it such a fantastically unprecedented experience. The film is also deeply integrated with specific events from the first film, creating an expansive storyline that will leave fans in awe.

Unfortunately, the suspense in Insidious: Chapter 2 is scarce, relying on poorly executed jump-scares as a pathetic excuse for horror. It frequently channels cult classics such as The Shining and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and although it integrates its own supernatural twist, it lacks the deep sense of intense terror from the first film entirely. Ultimately, Insidious: Chapter 2 has many opportunities to terrify audiences, and it unwittingly sacrifices far too many of them.

James Wan leads yet another subtle throwback to classic horror with "Insidious: Chapter 2", masterfully building off the original with more jolting scares and creepy characters, while revisiting many of the same ideas touched on in the original, and thus expanding them, especially in regards to "The Further". Patrick Wilson dives head first into his character, Josh, coming off like a contemporary Jack Torrance from "The Shining" yet more afflicted by the demon possession rather than any allusions to alcoholism. With multiple story-lines progressing, Wan takes on twice the adventure with this sequel, allowing for an engaging mystery arc as Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) and the paranormal experts delve into the history of the demon possessing Josh (Wilson). Rose Byrne brings the same energy to her role in "Insidious" and never takes away from the action, as does Lin Shaye, who becomes the post mortem hero of the afterlife. With believable imagery and a sound design that immerses the audience, along with the edit cut so efficiently that most of the jumps come from a combination of the two. Trading back gore and shock value for good old fashioned horror, "Insidious: Chapter 2" is a completely respectable rival of the horror genre and the perfect benchmark of where horror should be.

'Insidious: Chapter 2' might be an improvement over its predecessor, which really isn't much of a compliment. It's scarier, yes, but most of those scares consist of creaking doors, creepy geriatrics, a piano playing itself, people turning on lights, people looking into mirrors, people looking off-screen in horror and... footage from the previous 'Insidious.' Yes, the moments that scared you from the first film are back for a second time. It's just shameless. But what makes 'Insidious: Chapter 2' surely the better out of the two is that it doesn't fall apart in its second half, and it's very stylishly-made, which is undoubtedly owed to director James Wan. It suffers from weak writing and acting, but overall, it's quite passable. Still, I'd have to say that most suspenseful thing about it was waiting for Patrick Wilson to blurt out 'Heeeeere's Johhhhhny!'

If insidious is Halloween, then Chapter 2 is Halloween II. It's not as good or scary, but still effective in many ways. I think the over abundance of comic relief was one of the films biggest cruxes. And while is does borrow some elements from Psycho and The Shinning, the story is crafted into something original which doesn't feel like it's treading the same water as the original. The cast is great, there are still a few pretty tense moments and James Wan still proves himself to be an effective horror director. Shame he's leaving; missing you already.

Even though it is very much inferior to the original, I still had a good (enough) time with this film. It cleverly manages to connect to the first film, but it isn't very scary. The original film terrified me, but this one only occasionally delivered a good scare. The performances and concept remain solid, but don't expect a great film like Chapter 1.

WHY DID I GO!? LOL I ended up seeing this with a friend, I should have talked them into seeing something else, knowing how much I didn't like the first movie but she wanted something spooky, we would have gotten more scares from Scary movie 5 I think LOL.....Inshittious was even worse than the first one. The make-up effects on the ghosts were cheesy and looked like something from the dollar store. I could do a better job. The plot was silly and predictable, the acting (besides Rose) was atrocious, the one-liners from the ghost hunters was redundant and unneeded. We laughed a bunch of times (in tears from laughing so hard at one point), when the character Elise was hitting Patrick over the head with something, it wasn't even touching him; the look on her face was something from a comedy, then there was this boy, his mother had him in drag and said his name was Marilyn, total cheese. These movies are a disgrace....it kills me knowing a movie like Curse of Chucky doesn't even get a limited theatrical release and this garbage makes like 60 million, shitting out sequels to appeal to the masses. These movies are far worse than any M.Night Shyamalan film at his worst! Unfortunately I just gave James Wan my money to help towards another sequel. It's a shame I normally enjoy Rose Byrne and Lin Shaye.....I will never watch these shit movies again. Among the worst I ever seen.

James Wan is one hell of a talent, with an even directorial hand able to move fluidly from the trapped anxiety of shaky handheld to the more ominous spookiness of a grander haunted house setting without losing aim or insight. Summer's "The Conjuring" was the most successful of these endeavors, made on the cheap while recycling the best parts of his previous projects, and loved by critics and wallets alike. So it comes as a surprise that "Insidious: Chapter 2", while finely filmed, should find itself ever so disjointed and plagued by the very workmanlike rigor that defines the majority of Wan's artistic process.

Stiff acting, wooden dialogue, cheesy makeup, stupid twists and scares. There's the making of a much more compelling movie here. It's so incredibly rote, soft-spoken and blandly knowing of itself I just wished it would end after too short of a while. It speaks volumes that the only couple in the back of the theater with me during my showing literally chose to start fucking rather than pay the least bit of attention to the laughable everything that was onscreen. "Insidious: Chapter 2" has all the cash-grab crappiness of another "Saw" sequel, and I thought -- not in vain, I hope -- that that part of Wan's career was way over by now.

Insidious: Chapter 2 might not meet the standards like the first one, however it does have it's chilling moments.

The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.

I feel as if Insidious (2011) was a very cold and underrated hit especially for horror fans. For a PG-13 horror movie it really seemed to intense for that kind of rating. It had it's suspense, the build up was perfect and overall look of the movie was terrific. It did make a lot of money at the box office worldwide with a very small budget of $1.5 million and in Hollywood that's nothing compared to most movies we see today. So when heard of a sequel to this movie I was a little bit excited, but at the same time I was VERY worried because I thought that they just wanted to make more money. But then I found out that James Wan will come back and direct and then I knew I had a strong sense of faith for this movie. From the looks of the trailer, it looked very similar to the first one and that made me a little less worried because that means it's gonna be just like the first Insidious. So I saw Insidious: Chapter 2 and I have to admit it wasn't as good as the first one but I had a really good time while watching this movie. I mean it did have it's moments where things didn't seem weird but at the same time they seemed to fit with the movie. The first thing that I would like to point out was how I felt during the movie, and like I said I really liked this movie. But the only thing that this movie suffered from comparing it to the first one was it didn't have a bigger build up like the first one featured. It did have a good conclusion, but I just felt that the story kinda drifted in and out maybe due to the pacing. That's really the only aspect of the movie that it vaguely suffered from, but getting the good news is exciting because there were a various amount of reasons why this movie is enjoyable. First of all if you have not yet seen the first Insidious, please do yourself a favor and watch it because if you go in to this movie and you've not seen the first one then you won't have a single clue on what's going on. (WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD). So the movie opens up from the very end of the first Insidious and the opening might be my favorite part of the movie mainly because it goes back when Josh (Patrick Wilson) was at his young ages. And that's what I want to jump to is how good they give us the back story of Josh in this movie. We get to see how some of this demonic activity all started, and I really loved how his story was told. Like the first Insidious it had it's dark and scary moments this one actually has some moments that made you feel kind of uncomfortable inside. That doesn't necessarily mean that every scene in this movie was scary, but I would say the majority of the frightening moments did scare me in a very good way. Nothing at all really surprised me in this movie other then the fact was a tid bit of some humor that was thrown in this movie. Some people might hate this certain aspect but for me it didn't have a problem with it because when something was meant to be funny I did kinda chuckle .There is this one scene, were I guess it can be considered and action scene, but anyways it was so well shot and exciting that I know have more excitement with James Wan directing Fast & Furious 7. The overall execution of the movie turns out to be a very strong quality for this movie because it explains so much. The acting was very good and by that I say every actor/actress did a very good job in their roles. There wasn't any cliched or cheesy dialogue going off between the characters and I enjoyed that aspect. In all fairness this movie was very well constructed together cause everything works for the most part. (MINOR SPOILER) Great acting, a very good execution, a story that explains so much and a director to end his horror career with a very well put together film in general.

With an exciting horror movie lets just hope you got a good set of actors. Well in this case you do because every body who appeared in the first Insidious is back and they are ready for action. Rose Byrne, who always just looks great on screen and seeing her as her own character really adds something to the story that makes it more unique. Now in most horror movies the kid can get pretty aggravating but in this movie they value clarity and that's something to add the story because they're almost like a back up. Everybody was really good but the one person who was great and is fantastic in most of his movies is Patrick Wilson. This guys nails his a role so perfectly. As the story progresses we a side that we thought I would never see in his character. But overall I really felt like his character really drove the story. I honestly think this guy deserves a bigger pay because he's such a good actor but I feel almost as if he's a very underrated actor and he deserves more attention. James Wan, who is a man of horror did two films in 2013 and they were Insidious: Chapter 2 and The Conjuring (which I Loved) and for that I say kudos because that seems like a very tough thing to do. What I did notice in Insidious: Chapter 2 was that it seemed that he just threw all of his horror tricks because after The Conjuring I would assume that he wouldn't have any left. But he did a very good job a giving us he last bit of horror before he moves on to new things mainly Fast & Furious 7.

By all meas I would definitely see this movie. It's a very well put together horror movie that features very strong qualities throughout the whole length of the movie. If you have seen the first one you'll understand the twist in the movie, but if you haven't the hurry up and see the first one ASAP.

Delving a bit more into the past mythology, this sequel takes a different route min it's scare tactics, being less "Exorcist" and "Possession" and more "The Shining". The ending sequence gives a new meaning to the word "twisty", and I liked the fact that they didn't try to copy the first film so much, a mistake that ultimately killed the Saw franchise. They do still leave things open for a sequel at the end, but hopefully they have brains enough to not include the Lamberts in that one, since their story is very definitively closed here. If anything, I guess what I take away most from this is that while the story isn't bad, I just hope the book isn't too long.