Insidious 2

Add Insidious 2 to the list of sequels that should have never been made, expanding on things for no reason and occupying over 90 minutes to accomplish nothing.

Insidious 2 picks up where the previous film left off, with a dead psychic (Lin Shaye), a husband who is looking more then a bit guilty for her death (Patrick Wilson) and a wife who feels her spouse has changed ever since he went into the other world to locate their son (Rose Byrne). The Lamberts are still being haunted by the spirits from the first movie and everyone is feeling like Josh (Wilson) may have brought some of them back with him.

My biggest problem with Insidious 2 is that everything just feels so thrown together and half-assed. The story feels really sloppy and patched together. Twists are thrown in here and there just to keep things moving and too many subplots are opened (do we really care that the lead demonic spirit has a fucked up son who can't keep a shirt on?). The scares feel lazy here, as opposed to The Conjuring where the scares were planned out with skilled technique and precision, Insidious just rests on the coattails of the previous entry and all of the talent involved.

As opposed to going for scares, Insidious feels oddly fixated on going for the laughs, it almost feels like a spoof of the first at times. Too many scenes are intended for comic relief and even a few which were aiming for thrills just are too silly and overdone to be taken seriously.

Even the actors don't seem up to par this round. Patrick Wilson has a large percentage of the material resting on his shoulders with his transformation to the dark side and he just doesn't seem up to game, instead of coming off as sinister/menacing he just feels grumpy and maybe needing a nap. Rose Byrne is a talented actress but here her role feels as if it were reduced to a look of fear in every scene she's in. To say it gets old is an understatement.

Even the visuals feels cheapened at times I feel like I was watching a poorly put together carnival ride based on Insidious.

To make matters worse, Insidious 2 couldn't possibly end any worse. It's bad enough that things end as expected as possible with the Lambert family but the final scenes expanding on a last second twist involving the ghost hunters just feels terribly cheapened. There's some true evil at work if a part three to this series is ever made.

1/4