James Wan’s Insidious Chapter 2 picks up where 2010’s Insidious left off as the Lambert family struggles to figure out the old secrets that keep them connected to the spirit world. It is a true sequel to the first movie and focuses more on clearing up some mystery from its predecessor (even going back as far as 1986 with a backstory), than giving the audience a good scare. Sure, there are some frights, but nothing truly more frightening than what was shown in Insidious. The sequel brings back the original cast including Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, and Ty Simpkins.

As many audience members are probably aware of, Josh (Wilson) is not acting like himself after he traveled into the Further to rescue his son, Dalton (Simpkins). Renai (Byrne) and Lorraine (Hershey) appear to be the only characters to notice this at first. And due to the fact that doors are still opening by themselves, strange powder-faced spirits are strolling the hallways, and baby products are playing cruel mind-games, Renai and Lorraine decide to reenlist the help of the ghost-hunting goofballs from the first film: Specs (Leigh Whanell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).

The haunting proves to be too much for the partners to handle alone. What they need is the help of supernatural expert, Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). However, thanks to the last minutes of the previous film, the audience knows that she is not exactly a phone call away anymore. In order to get into contact with Elise, Specs and Tucker request even more help from Elise’s old, paranormal savvy friend, Carl (Steve Coulter) who uses an awesome set of dice and has some of the characters sit in circle formation in Elise’s creepy basement to gain contact with the spirit world.

The movie puts a little too much focus on solving this paranormal mystery Scooby-Doo style than scaring away hopes of a good night’s sleep. Towards the middle of the film, it started to feel less like a James Wan horror film and more like an especially frightening episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Certain apparitions were seen over and over and over again to the point that they weren’t nearly as scary as they were annoying.

Although the cast is basically the same, certain characters have a lot more screen time than others in comparison to the original film. For instance, very little of Dalton (Simpkins) is seen in this movie whereas three years ago he was constantly onscreen. He was unconscious for the most part, but nevertheless, he was onscreen.  Renai (Byrne) seemingly takes a back seat to Lorraine (Hershey) as the leading lady, but both women do a good job of playing worried mothers who refuse to deal with the spirit world’s shenanigans any longer. Specs and Tucker are seen quite often and produce the majority of the comic relief. Wilson is very adequate as Josh, the haunted patriarch of the Lambert family, who had to play two characters in one body and just got creepier in appearance and actions as the film progressed.

All in all, it was a satisfactory film if the viewer is more interested in what happened to the Lambert family rather than getting a good scare. Viewers can applaud the filmmakers for finishing what they started instead of just making a new film with the same storyline and different people. It’s nice to see horror movies that aim to scare, not disgust. Insidious Chapter 2 is worth the ticket price, just be sure to watch the previous film first for maximum enjoyment.

I give it a 6.8 out of 10.