Blumhouse Productions, Entertainment One, FilmDistrict,
Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye, Danielle Bisutti, Michael Beach, Ty Simpkins, Leigh Whannell, Andrew Astor, Steve Coulter
Chapter Two picks up right where the original Insidious left off. Dalton (Ty Simpkins) has been saved, and as we left off, Josh (Patrick Wilson) has been possessed by the evil woman who has been tracking him. We’ll the story continues (with a little bit of flash back) to show us the “rest of the story” and it fills in some big holes left open in the first movie. Not only does it scare the heck out of us, but it fills in a lot of the back story about what really happened in the scary moments of the first film. We’re dealing with some real evil in this film, and there are a couple side stories help to flesh out the entire story. This is the first really chilling horror film of the season!
I was really happy I did a nice thing. AMC offered a special deal, a “Red Door Double Feature” on Thursday at 7PM showing a double feature of both the first Insidious film, and then a 3 hour early screening of Chapter Two. Now I’ve said that the first Insidious was about the scariest film I’ve seen in recent years. Here is my review of Insidious. It was so nice to review the first one, since it was two years ago when this one came out. Watching it right before the premier of Chapter Two had it all refreshed in my mind. This was a big help, as I certainly remembered the first film, but watching it right before the sequel made it very fresh in mind. I loved the way this film, much like Back to the Future 2 did, took us back into the events of the first film and showed us another completely different view. The things that happened in the first movie made little sense, and were unexplained. Now they’re not. Now we know exactly what was happening. We learned more about “The Further”, an area where the recently deceased can go to stay until they are able to move on to “a better place”. We learn a little about a very “Norman Bates” type character who is really evil. We get to see some just desserts for some of the bad guys. I really enjoyed this movie. The characters are really great, especially Lin Shaye as Elise, the psychic who helps them get to The Further, and Barbara Hershey, as Josh’s Mom, Lorraine who is awesome, and explains a lot about Josh’s childhood that sets up the story.
Many critics have blasted this film, with the complaint that it’s not that original and not that scary. I disagree on both arguments. I think the story gives us a lot of richness and background info into the story which is very much appreciated. The first one always has the opportunity to be “fresh” because it’s telling a brand new story. The sequel has the disadvantage of dealing with characters, situation, and background story that we’re already familiar with. But rather than wasting that, they really gave us a richer understanding of the whole story which is great. Also, I think this film was every bit as frightening as the first. There were some really big startling moments, and the sound track is spectacular. But the suspense is also very good. It has a lot of edge of your seat moments, and real terror from the storytelling, not just sudden jumps and loud sounds. It has both, which is really good. I truly enjoyed this movie. If you like horror, this is one you don’t want to miss.
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