Being Film #8 for Hooptober 2024
Three years later everyone returns to continue the adventures of the Lambert family and their connection to The Further in Insidious: Chapter 2, picking up right where the original left off. It has a gigantic hurdle in figuring out how to stay fresh when you have to out of necessity do more telling rather than rely on the freshness of showing, and Wan and Whannell’s choice is to dig deeper into the mythology and Josh Lambert’s (Patrick Wilson) connection to the The Further and the mysterious old woman briefly introduced in the first film. It makes for a very solid, if for me slightly underwhelming sequel that nonetheless has more than a few moments and scares to make it a worthwhile trip…
THE QUICK SUMMARY: ***Beware ye of spoilers!*** We pick up with the Lamberts later that evening as the police investigate the death of Elise Rainer and the potential that the killer could be…Josh Lambert! Of course it’s not him, though…it’s that old lady in black! But who actually is the old woman? And why are Josh Lambert’s teeth falling out? Good thing we’ve established all of this in the first film, because Specs and Tucker are on the case with new partner Carl and…Elise? Nothing stays dead as long as you have access to The Further, and that proves to be both a good and a very, very bad thing as things heat up, the tables are turned (sometimes literally), and it’s up to Renai and Dalton to bring Josh back home.
I’ve read online that a lot of people really love this entry, and that it’s crazy and unhinged, which I don’t get at all (the second part, that is). Chapter 2 actually feels very by the numbers, even with its novel jump scares and twists. We stay mainly focused on one story: Josh’s possession by the old woman who – in the big twist – isn’t a woman at all, but an old man named Parker Crane who had a run in with Josh as a young boy. Whannell’s script positions the possession as a ticking bomb – the longer Josh is trapped in The Further, the weaker his connection to his physical form, but also the more that physical body starts to rot and decay. The solution, which makes little sense, is that Josh needs to kill his family.
It’s a little convoluted and one note, but because Whannell also has his motley crew of paranormal investigators on the case he’s able to inject more than a little life and fun into the festivities. Carl, the Tucker and Specs of his day who worked with Elise on Josh when he was a child is a great addition, and his connection to The Further via his creepy old dice is a great touch, and leads to one of the best scenes in the film with Josh and “What’s behind your back?”
The real joy of Insidious: Chapter 2 though is how Wan and Whannell handle the third act by literally tying it into the events of the first film. It might be the only time the events and sequences of a horror film are explained and made even better by the explanation. I won’t get into the details here, but for the best experience of this film it really helps to have the first film fresh in your mind. I absolutely loved it, and it’s one of Wan’s best moments in the film. Thank goodness for that, because another complaint I had was that the film looked fairly bland for most of its runtime. Wan goes to great lengths to vary things up, using a lot of found footage, but rather than feeling fresh it just kept reminding me that Oren Peli was a producer on this film.
It may seem like I’m damning Insidious: Chapter 2 with faint praise, but the truth is it’s a solid, fun sequel with enough fun to make it worth your time. Wilson and Byrne are again great, Lin Shaye continues to be a damn delight in every scene – dead or alive – and I’m intrigued enough to keep moving on to the next chapter, which will be up next on Cinema Dual.
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