Film Review: 'Insidious: Chapter 2′

With his last helping of old-fashioned ooga booga, The Conjuring, still scaring up business in a few hundred theaters, James Wan returns with two more hours of seat-clenching scares in Insidious: Chapter 2, a modestly scaled and highly pleasurable sequel to Wans low-budget ($1.5 million) 2011 smash that should have genre fans begging for thirds. Indeed, with a clever coda that suggests how this franchise might easily continue even without the involvement of stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, theres no reason to doubt that Insidious could rival Wans own Saw series for sheer longevity. In the short term, opening in a relatively low-wattage early fall market, the PG-13 pic should easily meet or exceed its predecessors $54 million domestic gross, without conjuring up Conjuring-sized biz.

If weve learned anything from Wans two previous films, its that evil spirits haunt people, not houses. In the first Insidious, that imperiled party appeared to be young Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins), son of Josh (Wilson) and Renai (Byrne), who landed in a coma after being entreated into a spirit world known as the further by a demonic old hag intent on possessing his soul. Only, as a last-minute twist revealed, it was actually Josh himself who had been pursued by said demon for decades and there was no guarantee she was gone just yet.

Fittingly, Chapter 2 (again scripted by longtime Wan collaborator Leigh Whannell) begins with an extended flashback to Joshs own childhood and his first encounter with the hypnotist and medium Elise (Lin Shaye), who appeared to die at Joshs strangling hands in the first films final moments. With this new piece of the puzzle in place, we jump back to the present, picking up (a la Halloween II) exactly where the previous pic left off.

Looking to make a fresh start, the Lamberts have packed their bags and moved in with Joshs mom, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey, getting a welcome expanded role this time), who lives in just the sort of draughty Victorian fixer-upper that allows Wan and Whannells imaginations to run wild. It quickly becomes apparent that the Lamberts have not arrived unaccompanied.

If the first Insidious often felt like an affectionate hat-tip to The Shining, with its gifted child able to commune with the undead (via the nocturnal art of astral projection), Chapter 2 continues the homage by having Wilson go full Jack Torrance on us, as the seemingly upstanding Josh starts to seem less and less himself, and possibly turning into something quite dangerous. That plus the appearance of some very unwanted house guests like a ghoulish bride who gives Renai a good thrashing about the living room prompt Lorraine to enlist some backup in the form of Elises erstwhile sidekicks, Specks (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson). Eventually joined by another blast from the past the paranormal investigator Carl (a very good Steve Coulter), who first investigated the Lambert case with Elise all those years ago further into the further they go.

Wan and Whannell once again spin a ripping good ghost story here, populated by lots of restless spirits who ended their time among the living badly, a mother only Norman Bates could love, and a lyrical bit of time travel borrowed from Proust. Theyre terrific pastiche artists, freely raiding our collective storehouse of horror-movie memories and arranging them in fresh, unexpected ways. Even their own work is up for grabs, since The Conjuring in many ways resembled a period inversion of Insidious, with Wilson as ghost hunter rather than hunted. But where so many sequels seem like mere remakes of their predecessors, with bigger budgets and less imagination, Insidious Chapter 2 feels like a genuine continuation of characters we enjoyed getting to know the first time around, and wouldnt at all mind returning to again.

If Wan is better than most genre directors when it comes to actors, hes even better with mysteriously possessed inanimate objects, bringing the audiences neck hair to attention with each creaking doorjamb, swaying chandelier and squawking transistor radio. He understands the innately creepy value of antiques objects that we know were quite literally touched by the dead and anything associated with childhood, that other irrecoverable past. Here, that simplest feat of sandbox engineering, a tin-can telephone, becomes perhaps the movies most accursed object and something of a metaphor for Wans joyously analog thrill-making in the digital era.

Working again with cinematographer John Leonetti (who shot both Insidious and The Conjuring), Wan makes artfully eerie business out of a Steadicam slowly prowling its way 270 or 360 degrees around a subject. Sound designer and editor Joe Dzuban also deserves kudos for his invaluable contribution to the pics pervasively unsettling atmosphere.

Reviewed at Wilshire screening room, Beverly Hills, Sept. 4, 2013. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 105 MIN.

Production

A FilmDistrict release presented in association with Stage 6 Films and Entertainment One of a Blumhouse Prods./Oren Peli production. Produced by Jason Blum, Oren Peli. Executive producers, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Steven Schneider, Charles Layton, Peter Schlessel, Lia Buman, Xavier Marchand.

Crew

Directed by James Wan. Screenplay, Leigh Whannell; story, Wan, Whannell. Camera (Fotokem color, Arri Alexa digital, widescreen), John Leonetti; editor, Kirk M. Morri; music, Joseph Bishara; production designer, Jennifer Spence; art director, Jason Garner; set decorator, Lori Mazuer; costume designer, Kristin M. Burke; sound (Datasat/Dolby Atmos/Dolby Digital), Buck Robinson; sound designer/supervising sound editor, Joe Dzuban; re-recording mixers, Craig Mann, Joe Dzuban; visual effects supervisor, Ray McIntyre Jr.; visual effects, Pixel Magic FX; special makeup effects designer, Justin Raleigh; special makeup effects, Fractured FX; associate producers, Jessica Hall, Couper Samuelson, Phillip Dawe, Bailey Conway; assistant director, Albert Cho; casting, Anne McCarthy, Kellie Roy.

With

Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Steve Coulter, Barbara Hershey, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Andrew Astor, Danielle Bisutti, Hank Harris, Jocelin Donahue, Tom Fitzpatrick.

Source: http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/film-review-insidious-chapter-2-1200607706/