Review of Insidious: Chapter 2

I’m not one for scary movies. Why force myself to be on edge for an hour and a half shoveling handfuls of popcorn down my throat while ghosts and murderers pop out from the dark corners of the screen? When I went to see “Insidious: Chapter 2”, I was less than excited.

Since scary movies aren’t my go-to genre, I had yet to see the original Insidious when the sequel came out. After viewing trailers and reading reviews and plot summaries, I felt confident that I could keep up with the story line. Little did I know that my time reading during seminar could have been spent well, sleeping because the plot is simple enough for a kindergartener to pick up on. “Insidious: Chapter 2” is nothing special to say the least.

For those of you who don’t know, the original “Insidious” is the story of a family whose son is trapped in an inexplicable coma. During his coma, the Lambert family notices strange occurrences around the house that could only be explained by the presence of a paranormal being. The Lam- berts turn to paranormal investigator Elise Rainier who explains to the family that their son’s spirit is trapped in a place called “the Further.” Josh Lam- bert, played by Patrick Wilson, enters into “the Further” to rescue his son. Both the father and son return from the unknown realm, but the family has yet to escape the haunting. The first movie ends on a cliffhanger with the death of Rainier who is strangled by the evil spirit possessing Lambert.

The sequel picks up right where the first movie left off. In hopes of ridding themselves of the evil spirit, the Lamberts move to Josh’s mother’s house. Soon after moving, strange and creepy happenings take place, just as before. Their attempt to escape whatever was haunting them fails, and everyone in the family besides Lambert is unaware that these events were the result of the ghost inside of Lambert.

Like I mentioned earlier, I am not a scary movie buff, but as far as I could tell, “Insidious: Chapter 2” is just another stereotypical scary movie. Through- out the production we see the classic piano playing on its own and the less-than-original children’s toy suddenly rolling around the room. If you’re a scary movie fan, then you’ve seen this all before.

When the hauntings become too much for the family to bear, Lambert’s mother pulls together a team of paranormal investigators to free them from the evil spirit once and for all. As the story unfolds, the audience is told more and more about the source of the haunting. After a chain of events, Lambert and his son end up back in “the Further” to defeat the paranormal being and return back to their old lives.

Besides the typical special effects and spooky ghosts, the writers of the movie included too much information about the source of the haunt- ings. Rather than drawing a viewer in, this tactic just made the movie less scary. There is something about the unknown that is much more frightening.

If anything, “Insidious: Chapter 2” is a good movie to see for all the beginning scary movie- goers or wimps out there, myself included. If you’re looking for a scary movie that is easy to follow and won’t give you bad dreams, then you’ve found your match.