Insidious: Chapter 2

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) starts where the first film ended and tries something unusual: it shows the same events from another angle. The Lamberts go home, but something went wrong at the end of the first film and Josh brought something back with him. His wife notices, and nobody believes her. The cleverest thing about it is the time structure. Scenes we saw in the first film recur here, this time from the other side of the camera. A shadow that was unexplained before becomes a person whose identity we now know. The two films are really one structure. Behind the story is a man named Parker Crane and his mother; that section is the most disturbing part of it and explains the figure in the bridal gown from the first film. James Wan left horror for a while after this and went to Furious 7. It was made cheaply like the first and again did large business, which is why the series continued. The method is mostly sudden sound and sudden image. For anyone who dislikes that, it is exhausting. The atmosphere is weaker than the first film but the plot is fuller. It runs 106 minutes. Good for: serial horror, possession stories, and anyone who liked the first. Less good for: it makes no sense without the first film, and the jump scares are relentless.