Horror duo James Wan and Leigh Whannell go further into The Further in the sequel to their 2011 success story “Insidious,” the shoestring-budgeted haunted house indie that went on to bag almost $100 million worldwide. Continuing the story of the Lamberts, “Chapter 2” picks up right where Chapter 1 left off, as Patrick Wilson’s Josh returns from spirit realm The Further with the captured soul of son Dalton (Ty Simpkins), soon after which kindly medium Elise (Lin Shaye) is mysteriously killed. Seeking a fresh start at grandma's house, Josh and his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) instead find themselves terrorised by bumps in the night once again — it seems Josh brought something back from The Further with him, and it’s corrupted a member of the living to do its demonic deeds.
Wan, fresh off the financial success and critical acclaim of chiller hit “The Conjuring," continues to serve up spine-chilling frights with scary efficiency: a gifted technical director, he establishes a consistently creepy atmosphere right from the mood-setting prologue, a flashback to Josh’s youth when he was visited by a younger Elise (still voiced by Shaye, physically played by Lindsay Seim). In later scenes, Wan ratchets up the suspense with half-glanced ghostly apparitions and the increasingly strange behaviour of Josh (who’s... not quite himself) before paying it all off with perfectly timed jolts capable of making the most fearless of viewers leap out of their skin.
A palpable sense of dread, amplified by composer Joseph Bishara’s shrieking strings, pervades throughout, even when events threaten to get a little more rib-tickling than blood-curdling (an obviously possessed Josh standing oh-so-creepily in a doorway, the voice of young brother Foster cheesily whispering through a can-and-string phone, “I’m nooottt Fosterrrrr”). And there’s a cleverness to Whannell’s script, particularly when a seemingly random scare from the first “Insidious” is revisited and takes on a whole new meaning — though it takes away from the horrifying impact of the original scare, it’s an inspired callback, and it's pretty neat seeing a horror follow-up build on its predecessor with such organic ease.
This isn't the home run Wan scored with “The Conjuring” — the plot, jumping back and forth between the Lamberts and a bunch of ghost hunters, is a jumble, lacking the streamlined simplicity of the first film, and though most of them work like a charm, there’s an irritating overuse of “boo!” jump scares — but for a popcorn-friendly scare-em-up, “Insidious: Chapter 2” is a solid hit. It’s an effective Friday-night fright flick and one of the better sequels the genre has offered, smartly expanding on the world and backstory of its predecessor while maintaining its ability to spook an audience.
Rating: 6/10
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