Highly underrated sequel effort

Rating: 9/10 (13 October 2015)

Trying to convince themselves the events are over, a family haunted by the spirits of the undead world they traveled to previously are shocked to learn the connection of those events and tries to end them before its' too late.
This one ended up being quite the impressive and wholly enjoyable sequel that's just barely above the outstanding original. The main feat here for this one is the fact of going around and finally giving a lot of explanation to what happened previously but doing so through the exploration of the sequences here as there's a lot of that throughout here. That this one manages to exploit this into explaining the few rather curious takes from the first one, namely the initial appearance in the nursery and entering the house which sets off the alarm that never got explained, are given really chilling explanations here and the further reveal here towards the end of what the demon actually appeared to be and why they were haunting the family cause this one to be much clearer about the history behind it's haunting scenes which gives this a really strong feel. That allows for the new scares in here, from the haunting first encounter in the past where it further reveals more answers while giving off the kind of startling jump that's quite impressive overall, to the sequences in the hospital that brings about the rather intriguing use of the dice-rolling for answers that plays a huge part in how the later scenes are built with their attempts to contact the spirit world and leading into the need for the visit to his childhood home that delivers a series of top-notch scares here from the encounter in the girls' bedroom and the kitchen encounter as well as the utterly thrilling revelation behind the secret wall that's one of the most striking and truly chilling scenes in the movie walking through the room to get to the front. Managing to get a lot of great use out of the startling noises and flash-bang jumps, there's some really strong visual sequences here that give this a different look and feel here than what was a part of the other effort, and these are aided nicely by the visit to the dead-world that worked so well in the first effort. As the fast- paced nature of these scenes works their way throughout here, it makes for some truly enjoyable moments that never really derail or lose focus here, and it's not until the finale when it does seem to struggle somewhat here as this is the film's only real problem area. The finale to this is really sub-par, figuring on a series of bungled, rather routine chases around the house that seem intent to keep going merely because the plot dictates that they keep having others rush to the aid in order to keep her from harm when she clearly should've been and comes off as entirely too sweet and cheery considering their history here. As well, it tends to really work as a way of ensuring that the film continues on rather than come up with anything truly original on its own and that does hamper this one somewhat. These here are all that really hold this one down.
Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.