Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), PG-13, 1.5 stars

Patrick Wilson and Ty Simpkins.

I declared James Wan, the director, a true horror film director after he made The Conjuring, the surprisingly successful horror film of the summer. He knows how to eerily create the tension and suspension without just putting predictable scares and jumps onto the screen. Even, I said that he could rank with John Carpenter, Wes Craven and maybe Alfred Hitchcock. But, sometimes, a director can have setbacks and all three of them had setbacks. James Wan has created his first bad horror movie with this laughable sequel.

The sequel is back where they left off as Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) is being interrogated and interviewed by a detective about the murder of Elise Rainer. She is really uncomfortable thinking that her husband is a killer. The family is staying with Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) and things are settling down after some strange occurrences and revelations in the previous movie.

Josh (Patrick Wilson), however, is recovering and tells Renai that he is fine and they want to move forward. Renai is happy until she sees a mysterious woman in a white dress. She follows her into the room and sees her baby daughter held and when Renai personally encounters the woman in the white dress, Renai is knocked unconscious and left on the floor in the bedroom.

Lorraine meets with the paranormal investigators, Specs and Tucker (Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson) to evaluate to uncover the strange activities and events that is going on. They call Carl (Steve Coulter), a spirit medium from 1986. Lorraine, Specs, Tucker, and Carl all go to a person's house and reveals something that I cannot reveal until you've seen the movie.

The woman in the white dress.

As you can see with my review, I am keeping this short and sweet because I do not want to spoil the comfort level of anticipating what will happen with the characters or what will be revealed. A horror or a thriller can try to unveil your mind as to why an event is happening without an interfering jump in your face while watching the screen. It ruins the clarity of the scene and therefore, you are just focused on yourself being scared.

The scares are there and a few were effective, but most of them were predictable and I was frustrated with Wan because of his last movie. He can provide us a scary entertainment. The artistry that goes into this movie is pretty much the best thing in the movie with its cinematography, but the lame dialogue as to reaching its conclusion makes the movie into an exercise.

The movie did feel like a rough draft for this sequel. The actors do what they can but most of the time they look confused. The predicaments onto what is happening with these events is more silly than haunting. The chronological timing shifts so much that I could not engage with the story and empathize with the characters. Insidious: Chapter 2 has great looking set designs and direction, but definitely cannot hold its own with the entertainment, pacing and story. This sequel is dull. Better luck next time, Wan.