Always check for who is in the audience of a horror movie. A really gory slasher film is for a certain group of people, and a psychological thriller is for a radically different group. “Insidious: Chapter 2” is the latter.
Just in the theater I was in, I saw approximately two types of audience members: the groups of friends who go to joke around at a thriller and the people who are just trying to figure out how scary it really is. Portions of this film pander to the first group, the title card is the words “INSIDIOUS” in flashing red letters with harsh organ music in the background. The film really hits all of the right horror movie tropes and if you enjoy laughing at the lack of seriousness you’ll enjoy that aspect of the film.
Sound is very important in a thriller, specifically the absence of sound. Lots of scenes build suspense by cutting the music, pulling the camera back, and watching a character slowly make their way into what you expect to be a gruesome situation. The lighting was also excellent with lots of shadow. There was also plenty of red glow from the conveniently placed red stained glass windows the house had. Visually the film was very suspenseful, and had you looking for the tiny details like a rocking horse or a ticking metronome.
What is most impressive about the film, which I expected to be a cookie cutter horror flick, was the story. Whoever wrote the mechanics of the afterlife world known as “the further” and astral projection knew their basic concepts. What you see as the audience in “the further” are corporeal beings who are no longer alive, but are made up of some material capable of opening doors, moving curtains and throwing coffee tables. Characters who visit only see a tangible memory like the inside of houses, everything in between is void.
The intention of the first film seemed mostly to create suspense; the apparitions made objects float around and scared a family with a boy in a coma. The second film shows concepts in astral projections that you would expect in a science fiction film, including time travel and attunement. The way the film portrays possession burnout is theoretically accurate. When the bad spirit possesses a comatose body it starts to decompose at the normal rate of a corpse, for example teeth falling out and hair loss.
Overall, “Insidious: Chapter 2” is a more complex film than it appears. It’s definitely a good psychological thriller. Gather some friends and check it out. Some theaters are actually playing “Insidious” and “Insidious: Chapter 2” as a double feature, though if you go for that you may consider sleeping with the light on.
