Short-Attention Span Review - Insidious 2 (2013)

Insidious 2 is a lackluster sequel to 2010's Insidious. While not exactly revolutionary, Insidious had a nice pace, some interesting ideas and pretty good visuals. It also had a ton of plotholes and a so-so cast; but, it moved along briskly enough and was a pretty fun, occasionally jump-inducing romp.

Insidious 2 has none of the strengths of the original and all of the weaknesses. It is a boring, loud, uninspired mess. More angry ghosts are haunting our family, more time is spent in the gloomy nether world, more pasty faced dead people scream into the camera. There are a few moderately interesting ideas - like contacting the dead with the use of dice with letters on the faces - but most of film just drifts across the screen in an ugly series of either cliched (on no, a ghost jumps out of nowhere at the camera) or boring scenes. People act like idiots to propel the plot, internal rules are inconsistent and the overall plot isn't even that clear...something about transvestite killers and bad parenting.

Sequels are a dicey proposition in the best cases. A sequel of a movie that was "style over substance" is even more of a challenge, since it can only work if a) the creative team ramps up the style or b) they add in some substance. When you bleed out the style and don't add any substance, you wind up with a movie that isn't even a good time waster. Avoid Insidious 2.