THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Early into the 2010s, James Wan would once again shocked the horror community with the inventive ghost story Insidious. And before he moved on to spark the Conjuring franchise, he gave us another dip into the Further, and it was another surprise of an experience.
PLOT
Chapter 2 picks up from the events of the first film. Josh Lambert is able to save his son Dalton by pulling him from the purgatory dimension called the Further. Their family is far from a happy ending due to the patriarch being possessed by an evil spirit that has been after him since his childhood. Once taking over his body, he kills Elise Rainier, the only one that was able to figure out what was wrong. Josh’s wife Renai denies the possibility of him being responsible when questioned by the police, but Detective Sandal (Michael Beach) assures her he will still be prosecuted if his fingerprints are found, which ends up not happening. With their house going under investigation, the couple relocate at Lorraine’s house with their children (Dalton, Foster and Cali). The haunting would continue when Renai hears the house piano play on its own and Lorraine sees the ghost of a pale woman in white. Dalton would have dreams of the same ghost and spot his dad talking to an unseen figure. Renai would eventually see the same ghost would attack her. Lorraine would then reach out to Elise’s former associates, Specs & Tucker to warn them her family is still being haunted. They show her something they never thought they’d uncover: they find footage of adult Josh in footage of 1986 when Elise first investigated him as a child. They would all seek help from Carl, a spirit medium who was also there in ‘86. With him, they reach out to the late Elise who gives them a clue on the ghost that killed her and is possessing Josh. They go to the abandoned hospital Lorraine used to work at, ‘Our Lady of Angels’. There, she recalls a patient named Parker Crane who tried to attack Josh before eventually taking his own life. When the group investigates his abandoned home, they find a secret room that contains evidence of him being the serial killer ‘The Bride in Black’ who abducted and killed women while dressed as a woman. Realizing who exactly is possessing Josh, the group agrees to tranquilize him in hopes to figure out how to bring him back. This would backfire as Parker would outsmart & overpower the men, tranquillizing Tucker while also knocking out Carl and Specs. As that happens, Lorraine would warn Renai that her suspicions are true and by the time they come home together, Parker is waiting for them. He locks Lorraine in one room with the intent to kill Renai, only for Dalton to intervene by hitting him with the bat. As they hide with Foster (while Cali is still with a babysitter), Dalton decides to return to the Further to find his dad. In the Further, Josh meets Carl and as they try to escape together, time is moving non chronologically, leading to the former confronting the same black haired ghost that Renai saw in their old house. With the help of Elise’s spirit, he is instructed to find the memories of Parker to defeat him. Because he doesn’t remember, he reaches out to his younger self from ‘86, who points the way. Passing through a red door, he sees the memory of Parker being abused by his mother Michelle (the pale woman ghost the rest of the family had seen), who forced him to act like a girl. The trauma led to him killing women at behest of her spirit. When Elise destroys her, Parker is able to destroy her memories and leave Josh’s body. As Josh returns to his physical form, so would Carl and Dalton who ends up finding them both. With the family reunited once again, Josh & Dalton agree to let their memories be suppressed by Carl. The film would end with Specs & Tucker investigating another woman in comatose, leaving the spirit of Elise in shock of an unseen figure she discovers.THOUGHTS
I was blown away with Insidious when I first saw it, so I was with a lot of people when saying we needed to see the rest of the story unfold and arguably speaking, I think this one holds up well as a decade has gone by since release. It's easy to give this a hard time for not being better than the first one, it doesn't take away the impact it's making. Wan and writer Leigh Whannell add more elements to be intrigued of the world building being made for the Further. It's a wild concept for it to be capable of being out of time where you can unintentionally time travel. That's one hell of a twist to bring things full circle. Joseph Bishara's score enhances on being terrifying yet compelling to listen to, which benefits the jump scares the ghosts provide. I think this follow up holds up better in comparison to later films because it keeps the ball rolling with the message of generation trauma and how we can make the mistake of passing it on rather than making a difference. This was crystal clear when exploring a villain that was far from the average kind. We knew the Bride in Black was gonna shock us here, but we didn't expect so much to unload within its origin. Tom Fitzpatrick showed Parker as one who was acting as a wounded soul and was far off to be redeemed. The tragedy definitely emerges when witnessing the unholy wrath from his mother. Danielle Bisutti was in my nightmares for a long time due to making Michelle the worst mother ever. I never thought I'd see a parent so obsessed with pretending to have a different child until seeing this. The whole scene of revealing her torment towards Parker is beyond shocking and is impossible to be unseen. I'm in relief when reminded the focus is on a family who actually love each other for who they are within. Patrick Wilson was definitely at his most experimental which works very well. Going back and forth to the isolated Josh to the vile deteriorating Parker was very impressive. Seeing this two face performance reminds me why he did something for the third Conjuring film, The Devil Made Me Do It. We're rooting for Josh the whole time because he never intended for things to get worse as he tried to face his fears. Despite the backfire, it didn't stop him from trying to get back home. He was definitely at his smartest when reciting his wife's song through the Further. Speaking of which, we're still rooting for Renai because Rose Byrne reminds us how edge recent events have rightfully made her on edge. She knows that this supernatural is far from her control which scares her deeply. No matter how scared she feels though, it doesn't change her mindset to try protecting her family. Dalton quickly got mature for his age, which makes a lot of sense after what he went through. Ty Simpkins is able to show through this character that you gotta be aware of your surroundings or you'll never overcome the odds. Dalton realized that as he started to realize when he was and wasn't in the Further. He even became brave enough to confront his possessed dad and astral project to get back the real deal. I even got to give a shoutout to Lorraine because Barabra Hershey made her more determined than before to end the terror that was looming her family for decades, something her son picked up on. The only thing that truly surprised her was discovering how big of a connection the past had within. And of course, she would've not pulled this off thanks to the experts who have their own motives on how to confront the supernatural. Whannell & Angus Sampson are still a fun pair as Specs & Tucker respectively because although these two don't have all the answers, it won't stop them from wanting to figure it out if it means it'll help people. I even respect that their banter actually was funny because you can't take serious of Tucker falling on Specs after getting tranquilized. I was even laughing very hard when he burst through the wall after waking up from the tranquilizer. As much as we miss Elise in a physical sense, it was really cool for Lin Shaye to bring her back spiritually. It's no secret that without the path led by her, the Lambert family would never have a fighting chance. Last but not least, it was even great to see she had another companion willing to help as well. I totally dug Steve Coulter because he showed Carl as a guy whose understandably hesitant with action, but doesn't mean he does nothing when something is wrong. He's practiced to find spirits and confronting is always a gamble because he can't guarantee what would happen, hence aligning with Elise. Although Chapter 3 revealed she was married to another man, it surprises me these two didn't hit it off because they do so very well from what we see. You can't say they love each other if she was able to convince him to return to his body whereas he almost didn't want to. I look back at the ending a lot because I wasn't sure for a long time due to no true hint. Now that The Red Door came out, it's pretty obvious that the red faced demon was always lurking even when not after the same target. And while that didn't end the franchise yet, it's relaxing to know the Lambert family would get closer to a permanent happy ending. Although I personally think film holds up well alone, there are multiple things within the story that don’t make sense and end up make the predecessor remain superior. For instance, they start messing up continuity errors immediately from the beginning when the one of the pictures young Lorraine shows Elise does not match the one we saw in the first film. In comparison, the new picture shows the ghost of Parker standing by the car when the original one was just a windshield reflection. I even think Detective Sandal is in over his head when going straight to saying Josh is responsible for murdering Elise. That is technically what happened, but he didn’t seem more persistent looking for the (wo)man in the photo even though he doesn’t accept it’s a ghost. It even surprises me how Sandal doesn’t even tell Renai the actual DNA that ended up matching. If he said ‘Parker Crane’, she would’ve investigated like Lorraine did and likely would’ve avoided further conflict with who was possessing her husband. I don’t blame Renai for being doubtful the whole time Josh was possessed, but he threw a lot of red flags when ignoring the piano, not remember their song and really thinking Cali would be able to climb out of her crib. I know it’s common for ghosts to choose when to let people see them, but why does the ghost of Parker’s mother get picky on wanting Lorraine to see her on the same night? One scene she doesn’t, only to let her minutes later which is a very pointless act of suspense. I know it’s important for a medium’s circle to not be broken, but how did Specs not know that? For a paranormal investigator, that should be some basic shit to remember. I’m even thrown off on how nobody told Lorraine that Parker had died until the next day. That was her patient, so she should’ve been told immediately. Of all the jump scares that didn’t make sense, I’d say Lorraine coming out of nowhere to warn Renai. It’s so weird because I don’t like not knowing where she came from in order to do this. And why would Parker leave the tooth on the floor after pulling it out? He was already on hot water for not remembering Renai’s song, so that was asking to be made and I doubt that was his goal. It was cool how Josh being trapped in the Further would lead to context in the first film, but how come his younger self didn’t hear the banging on the door and window once he was downstairs? This shouldn’t be a problem since he heard him upstairs. I was cheering Dalton on when he hit his possessed dad with a baseball bat, but I’m thrown off he didn’t even hear the boys come in. That throws me off than Foster waiting to scream until it was time to cause a distraction. Other than that, this sequel remains fine for what it is. In short, Insidious: Chapter 2 is pretty solid of a sequel for doing its best in enhancing the tension that was shown before and bringing things full circle in creative fashion. If the first film blew you away, I hope you enjoy this one as well.
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