Insidious: Chapter 2

Plot synopsis:
In flashback, we see Josh (Patrick Wilson) Lambert, as a kid, is having trouble with the old lady with blood red lipstick, who killed Elise at the end of the first film. Elise and a man named Carl, are summoned to help with the problem, because Josh's mother, Lorraine, is worried. In time, they find out he's a special ability of astral projection during his sleep. Elsie asks if she can interview Josh, and as we see Josh through the viewfinder of an old VHS camera, Elsie begins asking Josh questions, whose answers make her tremble. Next, Elsie asks Josh to play a game of 'hot & cold' with Elise, and they find him talking to someone and a door opens, without any visible means.We're in the present day.Renai is speaking with a police detective (Michael Beach) about the death of Elise, and the detective says he will get in touch with her as to whether-or-not the marks on Elise were by Josh's hands. The Lambert family moves in with Lorraine, to try and get away from the things which they experienced in the first film.But as soon as they get there, things are begin again to happen.They first begin with Renai, hearing the piano playing and the baby chair making noises, and moving back-and-forth. Soon, feeling things are still not right, Lorraine walks in on a sleeping Dalton, who (though sleeping) tells Lorraine someone's behind her. Lorraine goes into the bathroom, and is locked in, and sees a lady.When the door opens, Josh's behind the door and says everything is okay.With such things happening, everyone is on edge, and while Josh is taking the kids to school, Renai gets jumpy. She sets things up with the baby (baby speakers) and she then sees a woman on the couch in Victorian dress.The lady gets up and Renai hears her talking to the baby through the speakers, in a malevolent tone. Renai runs up the stairs to the room only for the door to slam shut on her face and lock. Renai hears the lady talking to the baby, and hears the lady smack the baby while it cries. The door opens, and the baby's missing.Renai runs downsstairs and the lady catches her off-guard, and screams; "HOW DARE YOU!!" and smacks her so hard she's knocked out.Meanwhile, Lorraine's troubled by the strange sightings, and the way Josh has been behaving, and decides to visit Specks and Tucker (the 2 paranormal investigators who worked with Elise when she was alive in the previous film), to try and see if there's a way to uncover what the cause of the strange goings-ons could be.Specks and Tucker are unable to help her, but when Lorraine says, "if only Elise was still here," they remember who to contact: Carl, the spirit medium from 1986.Carl appears at Elise's house, and apologises for not contacting them sooner, out of fear of what he saw back then.He listens to Lorraine's story, and decides to contact Elise on the other side with the usage of word dice to allow Elise to reply to their questions. Lorraine, Specs and Tucker sit around a table, as Carl begins to ask Elise questions. He rolls the word dice and asks Elise if she is there, and 3 dice placed together spell "yes". He then asks Elise "who killed you?", rolls the dice and gets the reply; 'she did.' Carl asks; 'where is she?, rolls the dice and get a reply; 'hiding.' They ask where, and the die spell out; 'Our Lady of Angels,' a now-abandoned hospital which Lorraine used to work at, and where Lorraine said the ordeal with Josh had begun.Back at Lorraine's home, Josh returns home, and finds Renai on the floor unconscious, a visually troubled Josh can be seen trying to pick up Renai from the floor, but his personality abruptly changes, and he begins to sniff Renai's skin and hair.Renai regains consciousness, saying their baby has been stolen, but Josh calms her, and shows their daughter is in the crib, asleep. Renai attempts to convince Josh that something's attacking them again, and they must move away because of what happened. A stubborn Josh denies her request and says the problems would disappear if they ignore them.Just then, both Renai and Josh hear the piano playing, and they go together to find the cause of the sound, but there's no one present at the piano. Renai realises the tune being played on the piano is the one she wrote for Josh, but when she tells this to Josh this, he shows no memory of this.Due to rising suspicion from Renai about Josh's well-being, Josh rushes Renai out of the room, telling her not to worry and as Josh looks back into the room he smiles and says 'your home is the shadows, now.' As he leaves, the real Josh in astral-projection form, is sitting at the piano - in the shadows, and bangs the keys, and screams, 'Help!'The next morning, Dalton speaks to his mother Renai about his reappearing nightmares involving the dead and the old woman, but more importantly, he's greatly troubled by what he has seen in his father. The night Renai confronts Josh about seeing the woman in their house, Dalton manages to see from a corner of a hallway in the house, his father Josh scolding himself profusely, and speaking to another individual, and saying the other individual must leave and go away. Dalton, clearly aware of the fact that nobody else was with his father when he was speaking, and tells Renai the next morning that the physical Josh Lambert is not occupied by the soul of his father; the true Josh Lambert.Lorraine, Specs, Tucker, and Carl go to the abandoned Our Lady of Angels hospital, and Carl helps them find the right room. Lorraine remembers the room was an ICU unit she worked in, and where it all began.Back in 1986, Lorraine and Josh walked into the room, and they see a patient named Parker Crane who's asleep. Josh looks away, to the machines, and suddenly Parker attacks him, as the nurses hold him down and Lorraine and her son quickly leave. Later, Lorraine getting on an elevator, and Parker gets on, as well. She tries to make small talk - saying he should be in bed, not roaming the halls, but, he does not respond. They arrive on the main floor, and Parker heads silently off towards the left, as Lorraine heads for the lobby, and goes to the receptionist and asks her why Parker Cranes' up and walking. The receptionist tells Lorraine Parker Crane had jumped off of the building that morning, and died.Back in the present, Lorraine, Specs, Tucker, and Carl go find the records on Parker Crane, and find out where his house was. They find it abandoned. Specs and Tucker go up to Parker's room and find a little girl who tells them to go before her mother finds them and she has to kill them. Carl goes back down stairs and uses his dice, and is soon joined by Lorraine. They realise the person who'd been communicating with them through the dice wasn't Elise, but Parker Crane's mother, who called herself 'Mater Mortis,' in Latin; 'mother death'.Just then, the crystal chandelier - which was being slowly unscrewed, crashes down, narrowly missing killing them.They enter another room - one hidden behind a bookcase, only to find people sitting in rows under cloths, and a chestful of newspaper articles on a serial killer who wore a black wedding dress. They find the black wedding dress on a mannequin. Carl puts his hand on the dress to find out what went on with it, and sees a man putting on women's makeup as a woman sits - tied-up behind him and screams, who he murders.They figure out Parker was the serial killer - 'The Black Bride' - who put on the black wedding dress and killed young woman, under his mother's direction, which explains who the people are under the cloths;his victims.With this information, they understand what they're really dealing with, and head home to tranquillise Josh (who's inhabited by Parker Crane's spirit), in order to get into him out of Josh.But things go wrong, and Carl is killed whilst Specs gets knocked unconscious, and 'Josh' stabs Tucker with the hypodermic syringe, rendering him unconscious.Now in the Further/Shadows, Carl finds Josh and they figure they need to get Josh back in his body, so they try to find Elise. They go to Josh's old house (from Insidious 1), where they see the long-haired man from the first film pacing back-and-forth (just as RenaI saw in the first film) and all-of-the-sudden, he's inside the window - behind the curtain, in the babies room where RenaI sees him, and screams.Just as he's going to try to take and kill the baby, Elise pops out and kills the demon, by pushing it through the window.Elise tells Josh and Carl they must go back to the place where Parker and his mother once lived, in order to try to end it, for once and for all.In present time, (Carl inhabiting) 'Josh' sends a text to Renai, saying it's safe to go to the house. They drive over, and are attacked by 'Josh.' Dalton comes and hits him long enough for Renai and the 2 boys to run into the basement and hide. Dalton then goes asleep to try and help rescue Josh's soul.In the Further, they arrive at Lorraine's house where they find the way to the old lady's house, and enter. They find Parker on the bed, dressed as a girl. Parker's yelling - saying his name's Parker. His mother walks in with a drawing Parker made, and yells at him yells, 'DID YOU DO THIS?!?'He denies at first, then says 'yes.' She yells; 'HOW DARE YOU,' and smacks him, because she says his name isn't Parker - that's what his father named him. His 'real' name is 'Marilyn.'Just then, the mother looks over, and becomes aware of Carl and Josh watching, and she screams at them and Elise and Carl are hurtled backwards out of the room and the door slams violently shut, with Josh still inside.Parker's mother faces Josh, and makes all the people whom Parker killed, appear in the room under white sheets. They proceed to taunt Josh.In realtime, Josh's just about into the basement to attack Renai and the boys. He breaks in past their barriers, and pushes Renai down to kill her. He's momentarily distracted when he sees Dalton asleep. As he raises a hammer to kill Dalton, Dalton, Josh, and Elise in the Further are being assisted by Parker who is the only one who can open his childhood bedroom door which Mrs. Crane had slammed shut. Once he does this, Elise beats Mrs. Crane with a rocking horse and destroys her memories, once and for all. As Parker destroys all memories of his mother. Elise tells Carl and Josh they must leave, as this existence is quickly crumbling, and tells Carl she felt his heartbeat, and he's still alive.Josh and Carl run out of the room, as it's disintegrating, leaving Elsie. They leave the Further, and in the darkness, they fight off attacking spirits, who are anxious to leave the Shadows for our world. As they fight the spirits, they find Dalton, and make their way back into the real world,In present time, they all wake up in their normal bodies with their own spirits. In the next scene, they are all seated in Josh's living room before Carl who tells him that he can now hypnotise them, just as Elise did to young Josh back in 1986, and make them forget how to astral project, preventing them from going back to the Further in their dreams and inadvertently bringing spirits back with them.They close their eyes; the camera zooms in on Josh's face, serene and beginning to forget.- Epilogue -Instead of the usual fade to black, the screen slowly brightens to a blinding white and then we see a sky filled with clouds. The camera pans down from the sky to a different house where Specs and Tucker knock on the door and are greeted by a family. Specs tells the man to please hear him out; Specs and Tucker are there to deliver a message to their relative, Allison. Allison is the sole survivor of the Bride in Black's killing spree, the only one who got away and gave a description to the police for the story in the newspaper that was found earlier in Parker Crane's dilapidated house.At the door, the family's little girl asks them, "Who's the woman behind you?" Specs and Turner turn around and see no one. Next, we see through the little girl's eyes, and Elise is standing behind them. She smiles at the little girl and puts her finger to her mouth, saying "shhhh". She walks past them into the house where a young woman sits unresponsive in a wheelchair. In the background, we can hear the parents of the little girl telling Specs and Turner that they have been having problems with unseen, malevolent entities in their home. Elise crouches in front of Allison, smiles kindly, and begins talking to her, trying to help draw her out of the Further. She hears something above them, looks up, sees the light fixtures swaying - and something else - and her smile disappears. Then we hear a creaking, grotesque, guttural noise in the shadowy corner of the room behind Allison. The camera pans up; we see nothing - yet - behind her; but Elise does, and the expression on her face is one of abject terror, as she exclaims, trembling; 'Oh, my god!'

Tags: paranormal, horror, murder, flashback

Review:
Overall, Chapter 2 makes several improvements on the first, and while,  depending on your tastes, this sequel may or may not be as scary as the  first, I think it's tough to deny that this is a all-around better,  more entertaining movie.
There are some moments that may make you jump a little, thanks to some good camera work, but this movie is more like "Seven" than say, "The Conjuring".
Writer Leigh Whannell stated at the Toronto Film Festival that when he wrote the film he had a list of horror movie clichés posted above him, so he could avoid using them ; he said the first one was to make sure the family moved into a new house once the haunting started .
James Wan is one of the best directors of recent times and he makes his stand by offering two awesome horror movies this year.
I loved the first film, and this is easily the best horror sequel I have ever seen.The storyline was fantastic, the slightly ambiguous ending of the first film was brought to light nicely, and a deeper more complex meaning behind the haunting was revealed.
The roles were believable, and the characters were portrayed nicely.The main thing that makes this film (and the first) so good is that it is actually scary.
The low key nature of the scares make them all the more believable.Overall this is a fantastic horror film, and matching the excellent original, if you haven't seen Insidious, see it so that you can see this!
Hershey too ), The Omen, Scanners, The Thing, Rec, The Haunting, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, it has absolutely nothing to offer : no characters, no atmosphere at all ( fumes ARE NOT atmosphere ), very bad storytelling, mediocre acting, a very messy story, and terrible wanna be fun moments that have nothing to do in a movie supposed to scare you.
The scares seemed forced at times due to the fact that they probably tried too hard to make the sequel as good, if not, better than the original, but it was definitely still suspenseful.Overall 8/10.
I am a big fan of horror movies especially ones that have a good story and have a couple of genuine horrifying and startling scenes.
Complete waste of time unless you are in the mood for an absurd,laughable 'horror' film that will put you to sleep when you aren't rolling on the floor laughing at the family being slapped around by the cheap-looking ghost..
If you asked your local theater for tickets to the new James Wan directed, Patrick Wilson horror movie, I hope they directed you to The Conjuring.
All I can say is more of the same, they used exactly the same scare tactics and even used some of the same jump moments (without giving away spoilers) it doesn't work the 2nd time round.I strongly recommend not watching this as the story is rubbish, the acting just about bearable and the jumps didn't work for me.
Insidious 1 was decent and I made it through the entire movie because I was engaged with the story more so than the cheesy cheap scares(that we've all seen a million times and are actually exhausting to watch).
Insidious Chapter 2.I really liked Insidious Chapter 1, it was a really good horror movie after a long time in my opinion.
When I heard they were making a second part (no surprise there as part 1 ending suggested it clearly), I had some doubts because sequels of Horror movies ALWAYS suck.
bad movie.Paid 25 dollars plus popcorn and drinks for my girlfriend and I at the cinema for a t.v. movie that we wouldn't watch on t.v.story didn't make sense.B grade actors,C grade effects,I actually laughed out loud when I saw the first appearance of a so called ghost ..
Where the first one had good scares, this one is just some more of that PG13 Hollywood mainstream horror.This is basically a lazy continuation of the first, with no real motive or at least a failed attempt at building from the original and recreating a piece that is as challenging and that keeps the same quality formula while expanding on other possible notions of the Insidious realm.
If you really feel like you have to do a ghost movie, than try to be a bit innovative and present something the audience hasn't seen or doesn't expect.The audience laughed most of the time, because of the predictable and stupid dialogs.I am shocked to see, that the same director gets to do Fast and Furious 7, since the last two actually got better I'm afraid that he kills the series.It's incredible, I mean he did "Saw".
Doesn't help this was released soon after some half decent horror films like the conjuring and Sinister, This film offers more surreal and at times comedic scenes then actual scares..
I love the two actors, Patrick and Rose, but the script here is so terrible, even they cannot make it believable, good, funny, scary, any of the things they were going for.This is like WHAT NOT TO DO IN A SCRIPT - exposition everywhere, incoherent story line and scares that don't come close to the first one (which wasn't great, but was good).Whoever job it was at quality control central, making sure the dialogue was believable, the directing was passable, had certainly taken one too many Quaaludes.Avoid at all costs..
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.
And lastly, the music was done by the same person who did the first, and that gave the movie the same scary, ominous, uneasy feelings.Overall I would say that if you liked the first one, this picks up right where the last one ended and it might not be "worth seeing" but you could spend your money in worse ways.
This genre mashing does not work at all for what is for all intents and purposes a "proper" horror movie.While the film starts off relatively confidently (The old guy's acting leaves a lot to be desired in the first scene, and is the first clue that this is not going to be a great film), things deteriorate quite quickly, and while some scenes and sets are "just right", just as many feel very fake and the camera work and grading feels borderline amateur.
It's surprising given the quality of Wan's other work but it feels like the producers have insisted on certain scenes/moments being delivered before they are really ready to go.The whole thing is full of plot holes and although the third act attempts to explain some mysteries from earlier in the film, for the most part there are far more moments that are ignored and make no sense at all.This is a terrible film.
There's Patrick Wilson doing his best "Shining" bit, a couple of different ghosts that need a back story for some reason, a weird choice to turn one of the spooks from the first film into "Norman Bates," time-travelling?
Even though its happened to them before though, they still feel the need to go and investigate the said mysterious noises.Needless to say you will be completely lost if you haven't seen the first film, which you should be watching anyway seeing as its a million times better than this.
If you can get past the fact that this family has knowingly moved into an equally haunted house to get over what happened in the first film, you will still be disappointed with the all-over-the-place feel, confusing plot, and lack of scares.
Insidious: Chapter 2 starts up almost right after the original Insidious ended with Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) Lambert reunited with their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) after his spirit was held prisoner by a demon in an afterlife dimension called 'The Further'.
The first part of the series was better at delivering horror even though it were nothing more but sudden scares One of the only good things about Insidious: Chapter 2 and the past installment is the music, which is reminiscent of glorious horror films such as The Shining or Psycho.
Plot - The famed horror team of director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell reunite with the original cast of Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye and Ty Simpkins in INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2, a terrifying sequel to the acclaimed horror film, which follows the haunted Lambert family as they seek to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.
Insidious 1 was a very scary but weak in plot horror movie that in the end was satisfying, although nothing special to watch.
If you like horror movies that have some kind of good backstory and aren't just "Jump Scare, Jump Scare, Jump Scare" Insidious Chapter 2 is for you.
The script also works as a continuation, but perhaps because the mystery has dwindled; it only manages to be an average horror without the same chill its predecessor has.Story follows the events of Insidious where Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) returned with his son from the Further, an astral realm.
Check out my reviews on www.themovieboy77.comStaring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey, Steve Coulter, Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell.Directed by: James WanInsidious: Chapter 2 takes place a short time after the incidents in the first film.
This time, there are a lot more twists and turns.The opening scene explains some more information of Josh's origins with the afterlife when he was a child, and things start to make more sense as the film goes along.
The origins of the black veld bride are explained and you start to feel that the family is in danger as they try to solve the mystery to stop the haunting.The films scares are effective.
The film has a "haunted house" feel to it, which is an aspect I love about horror movies.
The only summation I could come up with especially with the vastly superior Conjuring and this film coming out so close together is that he spent all of his time executing that first movie and when approached about a sequel to Insidious he said awesome I have a great idea for that flick and than just kinda lost interest.
The Conjuring is superior in the fact that it remains haunting even after you watch it, while Insidious 2 truly adds to the over-arching storyline of the first movie, and allows you to appreciate the two films as a series since they intermingle.
The film starts immediately where the first film left off after their showdown with the evil entities that possessed their son, the Lamberts hope that their lives will return to normal however this is not the end as the hauntings continue so they enlist Elise Rainiers assistants Specs and Tucker to help them investigate not only that but Elises old former colleague and assistant Carl from when she was a young woman comes to help too.This Movie Jumps Between the past and the present showing that they are both connected a lot of interesting twists and turns come out of this.It has very good cinematography with many interesting shots.
Again no music but the sudden loud noises and jump scares, the sudden sounds are still used very smartly and effectively.Not as scary as the first film but has the same consistent eerie tone throughout & wraps the Lambert family story nicely.
Is this a comedy or a horror film?The constant back and forth with the storylines was giving me whiplash.The little kid who portrayed Patrick Wilson as a boy in the first movie was not the same one in this one.
There are big drawbacks but there are good things here too.First and foremost, 'Insidious' llooks great, especially for horror films released in recent years (too many of which have looked like they were made on the schlocky cheap).
Some of the film is on the dull side, while the second half gets far too camp and histrionic, towards the end things get so over-the-top and senseless that one is laughing rather than feeling scared.Moreover, 'Insidious: Chapter 2' fails to make sense and gets muddled in the latter stages, with an ending that's rushed, convoluted, silly and clichéd.
The scares are very similar to the first movie (and other horror films), which makes them pretty predictable.
James Wan once again succeeds in establishing an unnerving atmosphere and employs both camera & sound to good effect but it lacks the freshness of the original, its storyline is predictable, and the surprises are few & far in between, not to mention that its moments of tension don't linger for long unlike before, thus diminishing their impact by an extent.Picking up right where the first film left off, the story of Insidious: Chapter 2 follows the Lambert family as they relocate to a different house while police investigates everything that transpired at their previous residency.
Soon, the family comes to realise that whatever was haunting them back in their old house has followed them to the new place, and with Josh exhibiting strange behaviour, the ladies take it upon themselves to get to the truth of all this & end it for once n all.Directed by James Wan (best known for Saw & The Conjuring), Insidious: Chapter 2 begins with a prologue that covers the part that was only hinted in the previous chapter while also playing a key role later in the story.
The tone is darker than the last time and suspense builds up quickly too but the story just isn't engaging enough on an emotional level.The look n feel of the first film is skilfully duplicated but just like before, all the scenes taking place in purgatory realm are facepalm-inducing.
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey & Ty Simpkins return to reprise their previous roles but their performances aren't any better than the last time plus the characters remain just as uninteresting as before.On an overall scale, Insidious: Chapter 2 works in bits n pieces and is able to use its setting & eerie atmosphere to desired effect at times but it is so predictable & lacking in surprises that just sitting through this sequel is a tedious job in itself.
As far as sequels go, it holds up very well in comparison to its original, they are both simple horrors that want to do nothing more than thrill, although I actually enjoyed this movie more, mainly because Rosa Byrne and Patrick Wilson get to shine a lot more, adding extra layers to these characters that I found much more effective than the first.
-Insidious: Chapter 2 is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan. It is a sequel to Insidious and the second installment in the Insidious film series.
Foundas further wrote that "where so many sequels seem like mere remakes of their predecessors, with bigger budgets and less imagination, Insidious: Chapter 2 feels like a genuine continuation of characters we enjoyed getting to know the first time around, and wouldn't at all mind returning to again." -- "After the pleasurable free fall into old-fashioned nightmare artistry that was last summer's The Conjuring, this busy-yet-dull sequel feels like Wan robotically flexing his manipulation of fright-film signposts, an exercise more silly than sinister." --- "Setting aside the movie's tediously lame dialogue, self-conscious performances and frequently predictable scares, the narrative's compulsively shifting chronology intermittently manages to engage, although it does little to obscure the distracting shortcomings of both plot and character development..
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.
Now a a sequel would be hard work- but this movie came out a few months after the conjuring- a film even scarier than the first insidious that is just as good if not better.
Some of the pacing and story elements, along with a lot of dialogue from some character, do get annoying or downright tedious at times, but overall, Chapter 2 is worth watching if you enjoyed the first Insidious.
Yet "Insidious: Chapter 2″ (2013) still manages to be a good horror movie.
(He's also the screenwriter for both films.)This was a good horror movie.
Insidious: Chapter 2 delivers a few decent scares in its first act, but unfortunately the rest of the film is a strangely awful comedy..
Summary: Insidious: Chapter 2 delivers a few decent scares in its first act, but unfortunately the rest of the film is a strangely awful comedy.
40/100 (C-)Insidious: Chapter 2 is directed by James Wan. It was one of my most anticipated horror films of 2013.
Moving on, it has a good camera work, Wan gives us some creepy shots, and at times it looks like a James Wan film!
I don't even recommend it for fans of the first Insidious starving for horror, because chapter two is literally a comedy film, a very bad one.
After surprising and/or scaring many with his first entry, horror director James Wan returns to conclude where viewers ended with Insidious (2010).
It just seemed like they photocopied the first film's script, added a couple of 'flashback scenes' and turned it out as a new movie.To be honest, there's nothing wrong with Insidious 2.