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2013

 

Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert

Rose Byrne as Renai Lambert

Lin Shay as Elise Rainier

Barbara Hershey as Lorraine Lambert

Screenplay and characters created by Leigh Whannell; story by Leigh Whannell and James Wan

Directed by James Wan

 

Happy 46th birthday to Patrick Wilson! This musical Ed Warren actor (The Conjuring 2; he sings Elvis to the Hodgson family) has also starred as Raoul in the Phantom of the Opera, and has even been nominated for two Tony ® awards for performances on the stage!

Insidious: Chapter 2 picks up where the first chapter left off: inside the Lambert home, but something’s different. This time, Josh’s body is filled with the spirit of the creepy old lady bride who, as Elise (Shay; There’s Something about Mary) relates to us, has been following Josh since he was a child. Apparently, he’s a very strong psychic, but the ability was suppressed with Elise’s help, which is why he doesn’t remember it as an adult. I haven’t been able to write about a flashback film in a while, so getting to see baby Josh (not really; he’s close to 8 years old) and a young Elise Rainier (with Lin Shay’s voice—odd) was really fun!

I love what Leigh and James (the W boys) have put together here. These films are such a different take on the standard spirit-attachment story!

  • Elise Rainier is fantastic. What a cool character! She’s totally calm (well, mostly) and expects pretty much everything that ends up coming her way.
  • The back story to the aged bride. Wow. Parents can SERIOUSLY mess up their kids.
  • All of the ghostly figures in the Further. Wow. What a cool concept. The Further. SO glad the Insidious stories turned into HHN mazes. Freaky. As. Hell.

Weepy Meter: 0/10 Only if you cry when you’re scared.

Man Meter: 8/10 It’s freaky! There are a lot of jump scares so he’ll cuss and then chuckle and say something like, “I totally saw that coming. I just jumped because you jumped” or some other nonsense.

Overall Rating: 7/10 It’s as good as the first film, just in its own way. The next couple of installments started to reach Beyond the Further for Anything They Could Get Their Hands On. But this is still solid fun.

Photo by Matt Kennedy – © 2013 – FilmDistrict

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