When I watched Insidious earlier this week, I didn’t actively plan on watching any of the sequels later in the week. That being said, I didn’t know what else to watch so I decided to watch Insidious: Chapter 2. I don’t think I like the majority of Chapter 2 as much as I liked the first one. I think a lot of my issues with the movie comes from the convoluted lore with The Further and how it all works.
This was the first sequel that James Wan directed from one of his previous movies. Leigh Whannell wrote the screenplay based on a story from Wan and himself. As much as I didn’t initially like how the story treated The Further once it actually started using it more, I felt it really hit its stride. The reveal of who the woman in black was and how it was explained made a lot of sense, knowing about serial killers and how trauma shapes them. The tease at the end feels weird knowing that the next movie is a prequel.
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey, Leigh Whannell, and Angus Sampson return. Lindsay Seim, Steve Coulter, Hank Harris, Jocelin Donahue, Danielle Bisutti, and Tom Fitzgerald star as either younger versions of characters or new characters. Patrick Wilson and Ty Simpkins get to do so much more in the sequel than they did in the first movie. Both Bisutti and Fitzgerald are terrifying. I can’t say how much both of them just look so incredibly terrifying, which only enhances their performance.
A lot of their look comes from the makeup effects. The effects make all of the entities of The Further look unnerving. The makeup effects for Patrick Wilson while he’s possessed add and extra layer of unease whenever he interacts with anyone else. The VFX used to enhance the movie do a lot to crank up the unease. Joseph Bishara returned to do the music and it feels much like the first movies score.
Insidious: Chapter 2 is a solid follow up to a good horror movie. I might try to watch the other movies in the series this coming up week. I know that there’s a proper sequel that’s going to be coming out within the next year or so that has to do with these characters. I watched the movie on Netflix. I give Insidious: Chapter 2 7 dice out of 10. [kofi]
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