Insidious: Chapter 2

Theatrical release poster

Lin Shaye

Ty Simpkins

Barbara Hershey

Entertainment One

### Distributed by

FilmDistrict (United States)Sony Pictures Releasing International (international)

### Box office

$161.9 million

***Insidious: Chapter 2*** is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan. The film is a sequel to 2010's *Insidious,* the second installment in the *Insidious* franchise, and the fourth in terms of the series' in-story chronology. The film stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, reprising their roles as Josh and Renai Lambert, a husband and wife who seek to uncover the secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.

The film was released September 13, 2013. A prequel film, *Insidious: Chapter 3*, was released on June 5, 2015.

## Plot

In 1986, Lorraine Lambert summons demonologist Elise Rainier to help her son Josh, who is being followed by the spirit of an old woman. While attempting to confront paranormal phenomena in the Lambert Home, Elise's arm is inexplicably slashed by an unseen force. She insists to Lorraine that they must suppress Josh's astral projection abilities for his own safety, and erase his memory of any of this skills.

Twenty-five years later, Josh's wife, Renai Lambert, is under questioning about the death of Elise. She is warned that if Josh's fingerprints are found at the crime scene, he will be prosecuted for Elise's murder. Josh, Renai and their children Dalton, Foster and Cali, relocate to Lorraine's house. They soon begin to encounter strange, seemingly paranormal events.

Specs and Tucker, Elise's associates, visit Elise's house and discover a videotape of the 1986 investigation. Upon reviewing it, they find someone standing behind Josh in the video. The next morning, Dalton tells his mother that he has been having bad dreams involving a woman in a white dress; as well as hearing Josh talk to an unseen figure. Renai receives a call from the police stating that the fingerprints do not match Josh's. A woman in the white dress appears and attacks Renai. Josh hears a voice urging him to kill his family.

Lorraine visits Specs and Tucker and they show her the tape, enhanced to show an adult Josh as the figure standing behind the young Josh. They contact Elise's former colleague Carl, who attempts to contact Elise's spirit. They are told to find answers at an abandoned hospital where Lorraine used to work as a doctor. Upon arriving, Lorraine recounts the story of a patient named Parker Crane who was admitted for trying to castrate himself. Two days later, Lorraine reveals that twenty-five years ago, she saw Parker in an elevator. When Lorraine asked a nurse why Parker was out of his bed, the nurse explained that he had jumped to his death the day before.

Lorraine and the group go to the Crane family home where they find a secret room. Inside they discover numerous corpses, a black wedding gown and newspaper clippings revealing Parker to be a killer referred to as "The Bride in Black" - who kidnapped and murdered young women while dressed as a woman himself.

Josh's body begins to slowly deteriorate and Renai realizes he is possessed. Lorraine insists that they all get away from Josh. Carl, Specs and Tucker arrive to drug Josh, but Josh manages to subdue all three. Carl awakens in the spirit realm of The Further, where he meets the spirits of the real Josh and Elise. It is revealed that time moves non-chronologically in The Further, and Josh is able to communicate with himself as a child to figure out the location of Parker's house in The Further.

In the real world, the possessed Josh ambushes Lorraine and Renai, locking Lorraine in a closet. Renai and the children escape to the basement. Dalton voluntarily enters The Further to help his father. In The Further, Josh and the others find Parker's house. They witness Parker's mother, Michelle – the woman in the white dress – abusing him for acting like a male, and forcing him to act like a girl. Parker had killed his female victims at the behest of his mother's spirit. Upon finding Michelle, she and Josh fight. Elise saves Josh and appears to destroy Michelle's spirit, which stops the possessed Josh from murdering his family in the real world. Parker's ghost disappears. Carl and Josh escape, only to find Dalton, who leads them back to the living world, allowing Josh to finally regain control of his body. The Lambert family is finally reunited, with Josh and Dalton allowing themselves to once again have their memories suppressed by Carl.

Some time later, Specs and Tucker arrive at the house of a family whose daughter, Allison, is in an unexplained coma. Unknown to them, Elise's spirit passes between them, going into the house and to Allison's room. She hears a crackling sound and rises slowly to look over Allison's head, gasping as she sees something standing in the shadow of the corner of the room.

## Cast

* Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert / Parker Crane
	+ Garrett Ryan as young Josh
* Rose Byrne as Renai Lambert
* Ty Simpkins as Dalton Lambert
* Lin Shaye as Elise Ranier
	+ Lindsay Seim as young Elise
* Steve Coulter as Carl
	+ Hank Harris as young Carl
* Barbara Hershey as Lorraine Lambert
	+ Jocelin Donahue as young Lorraine
* Leigh Whannell as Specs
* Angus Sampson as Tucker
* Andrew Astor as Foster Lambert
* Danielle Bisutti as Michelle Crane / Woman in White
* Tom Fitzpatrick as Parker Crane / Bride in Black
	+ Tyler Griffin as young Parker
* Michael Beach as Detective Sendal
* J. LaRose as Long-haired fiend
* Brooke Peoples as Neighbor Jessica
* Edwina Findley as Front Desk Nurse Hillary
* Stephanie Pearson as Dark-haired woman
* Jorge Pallo as Brian
* Priscilla Garita as Natalie
* Jenna Ortega as Annie
* Dannay Rodriguez as Allison

## Production

#### Development

After the financial success of *Insidious* In April 2011, discussions for a sequel soon followed. With producer Jason Blum insisting on the return of director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, a treatment script did not arrive until nearly a year later. "As long as there was a chance that James and Leigh were gonna write the second movie and direct the second movie, I didn't want to do it with someone else," said Blum. "They kept saying they might do it, they might not do it, which was why there's quite a bit of time between the two movies." On February 2, 2012, it was announced that director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell were in talks to return for the sequel.

While promoting *The Conjuring* (2013) at New York Comic Con in October 2012, Wan described how he and Whannell were working closely on developing the story and the script for the follow up to *Insidious*, explaining to ShockTilYouDrop.com, "I think the sequel to *Insidious* is kind of my reaction to *Saw* where for my own reason I wasn't as involved in the sequels, and so I felt with *Insidious*, think it would be good to shepherd it and keep it more in track to the version I had when I made the first film so that it doesn't detour too far."

The film was titled *Insidious: Chapter 2* because it is a direct continuation of the first installment. However, the tone of the film was to be more grounded than in the first film, with Wan citing his work on *The Conjuring* as an influence to how he and Whannell approached *Insidious: Chapter 2*. "I pulled things from *Insidious* that I applied to *The Conjuring*, and what I learned from *The Conjuring* I applied to *Insidious 2*," said Wan. "So for me, I feel like it's a cumulative filmmaking experience that I've gathered over the years."

#### Casting

On November 19, 2012, it was officially announced that Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Ty Simpkins would reprise their roles from the first film. The following month, it was announced that Barbara Hershey would also be returning. In February 2013, Jocelin Donahue and Lindsay Seim rounded out the cast as younger versions of Hershey and Shaye's characters, respectively. It was also confirmed that the film's screenwriter Leigh Whannell and actor Angus Sampson would reprise their roles as Specs and Tucker, respectively. When asked about the return of the two characters, Whannell explained, "There was this hatred that spewed out from fans saying 'I hated those guys! They sucked! They ruined the movie!' so there will probably be a lot of people out there who will be disappointed to hear that the Specs and Tucker characters will be coming back."

#### Filming

Principal photography for *Insidious: Chapter 2* began on January 15, 2013, in Los Angeles. Having a slightly higher production budget than its predecessor, the film was captured over the course of 25 shooting days. A bulk of the film was shot at a house in Highland Park, Los Angeles, which served as the location of Lorraine Lambert's house. Another location used for filming was the former Linda Vista Community Hospital, which was redressed as a hospital setting and used for the construction of interior sets (including recreations of sets from the first film). "I've never shot in Linda Vista," said Wan about the location. "It's kind of funny because Leigh and I have always heard so much about it. For research on the first one [Leigh] came here to do a bit of ghost-hunting. And I think a lot of that inspired us when we needed a hospital set."

#### Music

The musical score to *Insidious: Chapter 2* is composed by Joseph Bishara, who previously collaborated with director James Wan on the first installment as well as *The Conjuring*. "Finding the right range and tone for the feeling is an important part," described Bishara on generating tension through sound. "James is very particular with sting placement along with Kirk, our editor on both *Insidious* films and *Conjuring*. Silence can create a listening space, where rather than give you something else to listen to it enables you to hear things."

A soundtrack album for the film was released digitally on September 15 and in physical forms on October 8, 2013 by Void Recordings. Additional songs featured in the film include:

* "Waiting For You" by Alan Ett
* "Piano Sonata in B-flat Minor, Op. 35, 3rd movement" by Frédéric Chopin

## Distribution

#### Marketing

Prior to being officially announced, Sony Pictures Entertainment registered various domain names on November 28, 2011, for *Insidious: Chapter 2*. On January 30, 2013, the first picture from the set of the film was released via writer Leigh Whannell's Twitter account. Additional behind-the-scenes photos from the set of the film were released the following month. In April 2013, the first promotional poster for the film went on display at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The first theatrical trailer for the film was screened to a live audience on location at the Linda Vista Community Hospital on June 4, 2013, with an online release the following day. On August 10, 2013, it was announced at the convention Scare L.A by producer Jason Blum and Universal's creative director John Murdy, that a maze attraction entitled "Insidious: Into the Further" will be featured at the 2013 Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.

#### Theatrical release

While originally intended to be released on August 30, 2013, *Insidious: Chapter 2* was rescheduled for a September 20 release date. The film's release date was later moved again to September 13, 2013.

On the night prior to its theatrical wide release, the film was shown in select theatres as part of a double feature with the first installment. A red carpet premiere for the film was held in Los Angeles on September 10, 2013.[*citation needed*]

## Release

#### Box office

Preliminary reports had the film tracking for a $32–$35 million debut in North America. The film earned $1.5 million from its Thursday night showings, and reached a $20 million Friday total, making it the biggest opening day in September box office history. It went on to be the number one film during its opening weekend, taking $41 million at the box office. The film grossed a worldwide total of $161,919,318 against a budget of $5 million.

#### Critical response

Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports a 40% approval rating based on 125 reviews, with an average score of 4.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "*Insidious: Chapter 2* is decidedly short on the tension and surprises that made its predecessor so chilling."Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on 30 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Robbie Collin of *The Telegraph* gave the film a positive review, stating that "the scares are mostly very scary indeed, and that means the film does its job." Scott Foundas of *Variety* praised the "artfully eerie" cinematography work of John R. Leonetti and the "pervasively unsettling atmosphere" constructed by sound designer and editor Joe Dzuban. 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." Conversely, Robert Abele of the *Los Angeles Times* commented, "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." Justin Lowe of *The Hollywood Reporter* wrote, "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."

#### Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 10, 2013.

## Prequel

On September 16, 2013, a third film in the series was announced with Leigh Whannell signed on to return as writer while Jason Blum and Oren Peli are also set to produce. When asked about returning for another sequel, actor Patrick Wilson went on to say that he "[doesn't] know where else it could go", and that "[Josh Lambert has] been through the wringer, and I think the movie sets it up well at the end ... And that's great, that's how it should end." On March 11, 2014, it was reported that the third film wouldn't focus on the Lambert family, but would focus on a new family and story, that it wouldn't connect to the last teaser scene in the second film, and that Whannell and Sampson wouldn't return as ghost hunters Specs and Tucker. On May 7, 2014, Wan tweeted that Whannell would be directing the third film, which would mark his directorial debut. Stefanie Scott and Dermot Mulroney starred in the film. Focus Features and Stage 6 Films released the follow-up on June 5, 2015.