Insidious Chapter 2 continues the eerie creepy atmosphere that it's predecessor delicately crafted. It's not often you get a sequel, particularly in horror, that is nearly as good as the original. For me, this sequel did the trick. Continuing straight where the last film left off, the Lambert family are still being terrified and so they attempt to find out who is really haunting them and finish this once and for all. As with any instalment in this franchise, we have jumps scares galore, ghostly spirits in questionable fashion attire and plenty of backhanding (seriously this ghost smacks everyone). The story gets slightly convoluted and confusing for the sake of continuity, doesn't work all the time...to the point where it's paradoxical. Whilst the majority of the scares are predictable and just loud noises, the film took more of a thriller approach rather than a straight up horror flick. In my opinion, this worked better. James Wan knew not to compete with the first instalment and so he took the franchise in a different direction, and it worked. Particularly towards the end where there are moments of real tension. The Lambert family go through a lot, I mean any other family would go "nope. Nope I'm out of here." and just keep running away. So the scares, pretty much the same as the first film. Ghostly figures, noises from the baby monitor, piano mysteriously playing and one heck of an annoying child's toy/buggy/pram/whatever the flip it is. Problem is, whenever these scenes occur the actual jump scare is followed by a loud concoction of string instruments and you're actually more scared of that then what's on screen. The musical score is consistently good though, I mean those violins still give me nightmares. All the performances were good once again, always have a soft spot for Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne. James Wan is the king of modern horror, his slow tracking and panning shots are fantastic...add in ghosts hiding in the background and it just heightens the experience. This is a good horror sequel, which is rare for me to say these days.
