Watchable sequel which is preferable to the original

Rating: 5/10 (19 July 2015)

I wasn't a fan of the first 'Insidious'. In fact, I laughed at some of it and facepalmed through the rest. So, I was understandably reluctant to put myself through another 90 minutes derivative of better horror movies I have already seen ('Amityville', 'Poltergeist' – the originals, of course), and yet, I have to say that I found 'Insidious: Chapter 2' a far superior film. Far from a classic, just short of being goodbut certainly watchable, and even creepy in a couple of places.
The plot follows on from the events of the first 'Insidious' (as indeed the end of the first movie sets up) and has the Lambert family once again troubled by malevolent entities. However, thankfully, this time the comical demon from the first film is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the plot revolves around the father's possession by one of the entities from the "further" (the netherworld realm where he astral-travelled in 'Insidious' to save his son) and the team of psychic investigators who, along with his wife and child, set out to save him.
Now, many chastise the movie for being confusing, and surethe flashbacks and references to the first movie along with the shifts from this world to the "further" require a bit of effort to piece together. However, this is no bad thing and I found it a refreshing change from the one-dimensional story of the original. In addition, while the painfully predictable jump-scares annoyed the hell out of me, and some of the ghosts just weren't scarythere were a few moments in the movie which gave off a bit of a chill. Maybe this chill-factor won't stand up to a second viewing, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't find some of them quite effective first time around.
A lot of people credit James Wan with re-inventing the horror genre. I have always found this annoyingly over-stated as his movies are largely style over substance and rip-off virtually every other horror you can think of. Horror auteur he certainly is not, but in attempting something a little more ambitious with 'Insidious: Chapter 2' he has made a decent movie and left me curious about the upcoming third instalment.