Insidious Chapter 2 picks up where the last one left off in just about every way, mere moments after the somewhat pathetic Lambert clan have just rescued their son (Ty Simpkins) from the astral realm known as The Further. But before this, we take the first of many trips into the past, to help flesh out what will become an unnecessarily convoluted back story that doesn't quite pay off. There we learn more about the newly-deceased Elise (the scenery chomping Lin Shaye) and her connection to Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and his mother Lorraine (Barbara Hershey, still channeling The Entity). Back in the present, all should be hunky dory between Josh and his wife Renai (perpetually shocked and awed Rose Byrne), but they're still being terrorized by evil spirits. Worst of all, it seems to have jumped from the son over to Josh, who not only looks like an extra from The Walking Dead, but is strangely dismissive of Renai's fears.
Where Insidious found just the right balance between white-knuckle thrills and comic relief, the mix is way off this time and much of it has to do with Wan falling back on standard horror tactics. Jump scares and shocks fill the quiet spaces rather than effective tension building. Bumbling ghostbusters Specs (writer Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) are just as funny and ineffectual this time around, and if there are any characters deserving of a spinoff it's them. Byrne doesn't get a whole lot to work with, but it's shocking how easily Wilson transforms into a menacing figure with just a simple twist of lighting. He's genuinely the creepiest thing about the incoherent Insidious Chapter 2, which has a few scares but doesn't sink down into your bones like Wan's films usually do.
