I went to see Insidious: Chapter 2 last weekend, which was an...interesting experience. The audience was made up of 95% tweenages in a 2/3 full theater, which I found a little odd. It just didn't seem like a teenager-y movie, though I guess I'm wrong. Anyway, it was kind of funny, because every time there was a jump scene, a wave of screams made it way around the room, followed by nervous giggles and not-so-quiet whispering...which was the annoying part. About halfway through the movie some adult finally yelled at them to shut up, resulting in more giggling and whispers. Overall it was just really distracting, made it hard to pay attention to the movie, which ended up being better than I'd anticipated.
So, on to the movie itself...
I'd read a couple of reviews about Insidious 2 that criticised it for just being a repeat of the first movie, which I don't think is a fair assessment. In case someone reading this hadn't seen the first installment, Insidious (2010) is about "family in search of help for their son, Dalton, who fell into a coma after a mysterious incident in the attic. Little do they know that there is much more to this endless sleep than meets the eye as they explore the paranormal, and rediscover the past; the key to getting their son back once and for all." Thank you, IMDB. Slightly longer version...Dalton's in a coma because he is able to astral project and his spirit got lost while it was away from his body. Don't just roll your eyes...stick with me here! :) Since his body was...unattended...spirits begin trying to inhabit it, especially a particularly malevolent demon, forcing Josh (Dalton's dad, played by Patrick Wilson) to astral project (which he could do as a kid, but had been made to forget) to find Dalton before it's too late.
This leads us straight into Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), which picks up the day after the first movie ends. In the process of saving Dalton, Josh leaves his body exposed to an evil spirit who had "haunted" him as a child and ends up taking over it, leaving Josh's spirit lost in The Further (the spirit realm). Ok...that part is a repeat...a member of the family lost in the spirit world. But that's pretty much the biggest repeat of the movie (as far as major plot points go)...though it leaves it open to my biggest complaint about the movie.
So, everything that happened in the first movie just went down the day before, right? They all just went through a very supernatural experience involving spirits, a demon and a death...and yet when Josh starts acting weird and suggesting that "it's nothing...you just imagined it," the wife (Renai, played by Rose Byrne) doesn't think twice about it, other than being creeped out by things she's seeing in her mother-in-law's house. Denial, anyone? She knows there's something wrong with her husband and doesn't do anything about it until more than halfway through the movie! Pretty unbelievable, considering. Her mother-in-law has a much more productive attitude about the situation and seeks help almost immediately.
I liked a few things they did in the new movie that caused tension or made you jump (or scream, if you were one of the 13 year olds in the theater). One of my favorites happened when the boys had gone to sleep - Foster (Dalton's little brother) had made a "telephone" out of string & two cans, one of which was resting on Dalton's bed. Someone starts talking to him and once Dalton realizes it's not Foster, he sits bolt upright in bed. The camera follows the string, which is lying loosely on the ground. It winds it way by Foster's bed and then disappears into the closet. All of a sudden it's pulled taut, which made me jump about 3 feet in the air and incited screaming from tweenagers. They also have a couple neat tie-ins with the first movie...such as you find out why they heard knocking on the door in the middle of the night, why the alarm went ogg and how the door got busted open, breaking the sliding chain lock off the door.
Overall (other than the annoying audience), I liked the movie. It was suspenseful, not too gory but still definitely creepy. If you like that sort of thing (and have watched the first Insidious), I would recommend watching Insidious: Chapter 2...specifically in theaters, because I think the jump scenes are better showcased on the big screen. :)
For information on contact, check out the PluggedIn review.
Enjoy and happy Friday!
~ Katie
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