Predictable jump scares galore.

Rating: 4/10 (17 September 2013)

The original "Insidious" on its own terms works well enough, but its repetitive, unimaginative sequel clearly verifies that director James Wan is overextending in the name of continuing a franchise. "Insidious: Chapter 2" isn't a total disaster, but it is a disappointment when compared to the first installment, and Wan's most recent success with "The Conjuring" (2013). Despite some clever plotting, interweaving the film's second half with events from the original, it simply lacks tension and falls short on scares.
The opening prologue set almost 30 years prior, gives us a shadowy realm called the Further. In this place, the souls of the dead who refuse to accept their fate, and wander around searching for a way to reconnect with the real world. Following the prologue, events pick up right where the first movie ended. Josh (Patrick Wilson) has just rescued son Dalton (Ty Simpkins), whose spirit form had traveled away from his physical body, and is now trapped in a dimension not meant for the living. In their return to the real world, however, the same spectral presence that terrorized Josh as a child -- an old lady wearing a black veil in a wedding dress, has followed him back.
With the present-day Elise (Lin Shaye) found strangled to death, Renai (Rose Byrne) cannot curb her intuition that husband Josh might have had something to do with it. She trusts him and doesn't believe he'd be capable of murder, but when she looks into his eyes she no longer recognizes the man she married. As forensic sends away tests on fingerprints, the Lambert family go to stay with Lorraine (Barbara Hershey), hoping the worst is behind them.
What made the first film creepy and chilling is now all familiar material, and the addition of a back story infused with some artificial conflict isn't nearly enough to compensate for its lack of suspense. The storyline lacks structure leaving the movie noticeably uneven, and the plot ultimately becomes tiresome and convoluted. The ending is your typical, predictable sequel conclusion to keep the franchise going after Wan's exit. Inevitably, "Insidious 3" is only a matter of time, and it will continue to stretch a story that doesn't have much else to say.