INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2

US, 2013, 104 minutes, Colour.
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lynne Shay, Leigh Whanell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey.
Directed by James Wan.

Insidious was very popular with audiences on its first release, exceeding box-office expectations. After all, there have been many haunted house thrillers and many ghost horror stories. Here was another one. But it had a good cast, was well written, created its eerie atmosphere, invented a few alternatives to going into the land of forgiveness and the afterlife, called The Further.

What can filmmakers do except to make a sequel! They have capitalised on what was successful in the first film and offered some variations and similar repetitions. And this film has been successful as well.

Insidious: Chapter 2 was written by Australian Leigh Whannel who wrote the first film (and wrote the first in the Saw series) as well as the first Insidious. The film was directed by James Wan who directed Saw and Insidious – and had great success, critical and box-office, in 2013 with his exorcism film, The Conjuring. And the star also comes from Australia, Rose Byrne.

However, this is a very American film, a film about a family, with grandmother (Barbara Hershey), parents (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) and three children, capitalising on the bonds between them all. It is also haunted house story, the audience being taken back at the opening to 1986 and some experts trying to help a mother who has a haunted child. This was the house of the grandmother and the proceedings had an influence on the father of the family who, in the initial film, was taken into The Further. This time we wonder whether he actually returned or whether he was possessed by a sinister Bride in Black from the past. This sets up the new hauntings, bizarre behaviour by the father, and the self-sacrifice of the son, who previously saved his father, to do it again.

Entertaining in its way, not one of the classics, but a respectable contribution to the genre.

1. The popularity of the original film? The story of ghosts, haunted house, The Further?

2. The plot of this sequel, drawing on the first, variations on the first? Hauntings, ghosts, going into The Further, the rescue? The vanquishing of the Bride In Black?

3. The family and this story, Josh’s family house, the present house, the hauntings, within the house or within the persons? Persons being taken over by sinister beings? The experiences, the explanations?

4. The return to 1986? The house, Carl and Elise going to help with Parker, his mother’s concern? Elise as fearless, Carl doing the recordings? the boy sitting in a chair, being filmed? The sinister presence of the woman? Elise and search, Parker advising her warm or cold? A confrontation with the Bride in Black, the scratch, her return?

5. The present, the presuppositions, the family home, finding Elise dead in the chair? Renai and the children, the birth of Kelly, concern about her? Josh and his reassuring her that she should not show fear and the evil presence would go? Kelly, the disappearance, the mysterious playing of the piano? Renai and the interview by the detective? Her fears, suspicious of Josh, wondering whether he killed Elise? The reliance on Lorraine?

6. Lorraine, her having the two come to the house, the search, the filming? Carl and his presence? The older Carl? The dice, the word, death, the room of the dead? The exploration, finding little girl, the sinister presence?

7. The dangers for Renai, the babysitter with the boys, her sending them away for their safety, with Lorraine, the escape? The phone call, the return? Josh and his being possessed, his violence towards Renai, chasing her to the basement, her locking the doors? Carl and the dice?

8. Dalton, his place in the family, the vividness of his nightmares, the ghosts approaching to destroy him? His younger brother? His hitting his father to save his mother? Volunteering to go into The Further? The old tins and string phone, taking them into The Further? Finding his father and the others?

9. Carl, his coming to interview Josh, the glass of water, the dice indicating the knife behind Josh’s back, Josh’s attack on him, he is going into The
Further? Meeting Elise, meeting the real Josh, the search, the reliance on memories, of the old house, the flashbacks, the little girl on the bed, it’s being Parker, the mother wanting him to identify as a girl, called Marilyn? His decision to guide them? The room with the 15 victims? The build-up to the confrontation? The death of the false Josh? Their coming out of The Further?

10. The reconciliation? The happy ending? The destruction of the Bride in Black?

11. The tongue-in-cheek ending with the phone call and the group going to the house to see the possessed young woman?