Sept. 23, 2013
Serena Ahmad
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“Insidious: Chapter 2,” the sequel to “Insidious,” opened Friday, Sept. 13 – an apt marketing move for a horror movie.
The story starts with a young Elise (the elderly psychic from the first movie), who has been called in to visit main character, Josh, at his 1986 childhood home.
She meets a good friend there, Carl, who was initially called in by a young Josh’s mother, a nurse.
Elise takes a video recording of an interview with Josh, who is later found to be talking to a future, adult Josh (Patrick Wilson). Elise finds the being that is trying to possess young Josh’s body.
She finds the entity hiding in the closet and is harmed by the evil entity as she tries to lure it out. This was a little too predictable, though still very dramatic.
This scene, to prevent confusion, should have been black and white to at least allow the audience to know that it was a flashback.
The movie then snaps back to the present time, 25 years later. Josh’s wife, Renai (Rose Byrne), is interviewed by a police detective in regards to the murder of Elise during séance that rescued Josh and Renai’s eldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) and pulled him out of a deep sleep.
The detective implies Josh may be the murderer, and Renai seems hesitant to disregard his words.
Renai picks up her role as the damsel in distress, which makes her unlikable. One would think she had toughened up since dealing with the events of the first movie. Dalton was much more prepared to fight off the entities than she was.
The film is intense and includes scenes of a grotesque ghost bride and a possessed man. Confusingly, a baby is left to cry in an upstairs room while the other characters run from a supernatural monster and remains unmentioned for the climax.
Though “Insidious: Chapter 2” was shocking and interesting, it should be the end of the franchise. “Insidious: Chapter 2” did explain a lot from the first movie and wrapped it all up well.
It was too predictable, and enough was left out that it does not warrant a five-star rating. “Insidious: Chapter 3,” already confirmed, seems it will be very similar to the first two.