Revisiting "INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2" 13 Years Later

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Insidious is a movie that was very important for me as a young horror fan.

[00:00:04]It scared the hell out of me and helped shape some of the aesthetics that I'm still drawn to to this day. And as an adult revisiting it, it's just such a fun haunted house movie. I think it holds up really well. It's a really great spook fest that served as a precursor to the franchise that James Juan would bring to the world that would go on to be the most lucrative franchise in horror history with The Conjuring.

[00:00:26]But that same year, he and Lee Winnell were cooking up more than the undeniably charming and effective, albeit controversial movie about the Warren.

[00:00:33]Insidious 2 released in September of 2013, two short months after The Conjuring. And this is a great example of how to make a horror sequel effectively satisfying. Now, that's not to say that Insidious 2 is some explosive, life-changing film or anything like that, but it's just a damn cool sequel. There are so many interesting things that this follow-up does with what had been set up in the first film. It recontextualizes certain events to make them way more interesting. If you go back and watch the first movie, and it's just a really fun time. I love making videos about really dense movies like Bose is Afraid or The Lighthouse or whatever. I really enjoyed those. But man, I can't lie, some of the most enjoyable times I've had working on videos has been the stuff I did on the Conjuring franchise. And I'm feeling that same thing again getting into Insidious. both because I have so much nostalgia wrapped up here, but also because they're super enjoyable, palatable, sweet, cool movies. It's fun, man. God, it's not perfect, but I enjoy talking about these kinds of movies so much. So, without further ado, let's take a look at James Juan and Lee Winnell's 2013 film, Insidious Chapter 2. One of the big things that I love so much about this movie is how it plays with time. You all know I love a good timebending ghost story. And the film opens on something that pays off in such a cool way later on, showing us the moment when Elise first came to the home of Josh Lambert at the request of not Lorraine. Okay, we're getting a new character here. But yeah, we're seeing when Elise saw Josh as a kid and helped him lose the memory of his ability to travel to the further to prevent him from leaving his body vulnerable to malicious spirits. Also, it's kind of funny that people already have a hard enough time remembering which one is Insidious and which one's The Conjuring since Patrick Wilson is in both of them, but we also have a character named Lorraine in both movies.

[00:02:16]It may seem somewhat redundant at first to open this movie with a scene that we already know took place, but it does make sense given where this movie is going and how much more focused it is on Josh this time around, which shouldn't be a surprise after how the first one ended. There are a couple of things to point out here, like how Lindsay Sim, who plays the young Elise for this section, had her voice dubbed over by Lynn Sheay.

[00:02:37]>> May I meet him?

[00:02:38]>> I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this since listening to her in interviews, you know, her voice is pretty different from Sha, so I understand that, but so are the other characters here, and those voices weren't dubbed, so it sort of makes this one stand out. Plus, if you're really looking, you can tell it's a dub. It's not bad by any means, but it's not seamless. I would honestly be less weirded out by it if they fully committed to the dub and didn't decide to leave in Sime's frightened breathing when she's approaching the closet. Their voices are really different and that makes it stick out a lot.

[00:03:10]I do have one other nitpick with this scene, but it's so inconsequential that I don't even want to mention it right now. I'll talk about it at the end of the video for the nerds out there who are interested in camera gear. Insidious chapter 2 picks up very soon after the events of the first film with Renee in an interview with a police detective being asked about the murder of Eliz. Of course, Josh is currently the prime suspect, but there's no actual evidence to support this yet. And while Renee firmly stands by not believing that Josh did it while speaking to the detective, it's pretty clear that she suspects that something is going on. Something I appreciate about this movie is that it doesn't waste any time before letting the supernatural side of the story start running, which makes a lot of sense considering how soon after the first movie this takes place alongside the reveal that they didn't actually stop anything back there. They just saved Daltton for the time being. One of my favorite things about this movie is that from the moment we go through that time jump and pick up after the events of the first one, Josh is already possessed. We don't actually see the adult Josh until quite a ways into the movie when the spirit possessing him decides to mock him after he tries to get Rene's attention by playing the piano.

[00:04:14]It's never really hidden that something strange is going on with Josh. Of course, after how the first movie ended, it would feel really weird if they tried to convince us otherwise because we know that that has to be dealt with. And it's not like those around him take all that long to come around on this either. It's almost like Juan and Winnell wanted to play with the trope of the father/husband not believing the wife when spooky [ __ ] starts happening by having Josh behave in that reductive way and saying that, you know, it's over and that nothing is coming for them. But this isn't out of some contrived writing approach to keep the pace. It's happening because Josh is still trapped in the further and his body was actually successfully taken by a spirit. The same spirit that was seen during that incredible opening sequence from the first movie. I think that making the bride in black, as the movie dubs the freaky dude, the focal haunting of the sequel makes a lot of sense because quite honestly, this was way creepier to look at than the demon that was actually at the core of what was going on there and felt kind of underutilized. We do need to try and talk through this spirit in a second, but I really like how Josh's possession is handled. It's not entirely clear at first if what we're dealing with is something where Josh is slowly being possessed and sometimes we're seeing the real him or if it is entirely him being manipulated by a spirit. And it turns out that neither of those are true and the dude is full-blown possessed from the start. Killing off that arc of him going from reductive and avoidant to being the one who saves his son is a clear signal that this is the case. And it feels insane given what just happened to see him go back to like, nah, you're imagining it. It's all fine. Chill out now. It's also super cool to see how Josh's body like can't handle how rotten and dead the spirit occupying it is. And that causes him to start falling apart with his teeth coming out, his skin aging rapidly and becoming gray and wrinkled. It's cool to see the other side of what actually happens when a spirit from the further does manage to find a body to take over. And also cranks up the tension because this means that he obviously is going to need new bodies every once in a while, which makes the spirit even more dangerous.

[00:06:08]I'm always really compelled by the idea of possessions that are caused not necessarily by demonic forces, but by spirits who are so alone in the dark nothingness of death that they just want respit from that. But you combine that fear of being in the further with a serial killer spirit, and you're in for a really dangerous possession. The one thing I do wish they' done more with here is getting across a sense of instability in the possession outside of the physical deterioration. Like it would have been cool to have the spirit possessing Josh get confused or not be used to the body that it's occupying.

[00:06:40]There's a bit too much confidence in my opinion for someone who's been trapped in the further for this long to be having very little trouble with this.

[00:06:46]But I do love how cold Patrick Wilson plays the possessed version of this character. You can tell that something is deeply off. But I just wish there was more of a transitioning point for Parker Crane as he settled into Josh's body.

[00:06:59]Okay. Uh there there is something that needs to be talked about with Insidious 2. And if you just want fun movie talk, then feel free to skip this part. I will include a chapter marker. There is a big question mark surrounding how this movie handles that central spirit. With the bride in black being a man who dressed up as a woman to commit his murders, there is no question that many movies have used like transgender characters for horror villains because it makes things more uncomfortable for a lot of people. and that it can be very problematic. Now, I am not a trans person, so I don't really think it's my place to make any declarative statements about whether or not this particular character is or isn't problematic, but I did go around and try and find trans people talking about this to see what the consensus was. And here's where my admittedly unimportant opinion on this lands. Parker Crane, the spirit in question, is not a disrespectful depiction of a trans character because Parker Crane is not a trans character.

[00:08:01]In fact, in some ways, he could almost be seen as an example of what happens when someone is forced to be someone they're not, which is a protrans perspective. I'm not saying that was what they were going for with the character. I'm just saying I don't know if this depiction quite matches.

[00:08:16]Parker's mother was out of her [ __ ] mind and would force him to dress up in girls clothes and take on a girl's name, which is something that he fought back against and faced abuse over. And that trauma wound up being wrapped into how he went about committing his murders, where he was so broken by his mother that he would dress up as the bride in black as a disguise and take out his rage on his victims. Parker isn't a woman and doesn't believe that he is.

[00:08:38]He's a man who was traumatized by a parent who wanted him to be a girl. And that's not a transgender character.

[00:08:44]Again, this is not at all my place to make a declaration, but from the reading I've done from people who are much more qualified than I am, that seems to kind of be what I saw brought up a lot. And that that does make sense to me. But again, doesn't matter what I think. Now, the one thing I will say though is that while we can certainly look at this through that lens and say, "Oh, yeah, maybe he's not a disrespectful depiction because he doesn't actually match what a trans character is." You do have to remember that there are going to be people who will just see man dressing up as woman and they're going to run with their preconceived notions about that.

[00:09:16]And even if the depiction in and of itself isn't a problem, it can become problematic in interpretation. It's a it's a complicated thing to talk about.

[00:09:25]And I I just I Yeah, it's tough. Anyway, I get a little on edge when we have a story that sets up something that's as uniquely creepy as The Bride in Black was from the first movie and demystifies it too much because that can kind of kill some of the allore. And I do think that in some sense that does apply here.

[00:09:42]But bear with me. They did a good enough job with the story they decided to tell that it's something that's not too hard to digest. And they did some stuff with the manifestation of spirits in the movie that I feel like still keeps that allure alive. Parker's story is a really sad one ultimately. He's a serial killer and takes a lot of pleasure in the horrible things that he does, but he's also one who has a really tragic backstory. Now, that could have very easily been a generic setup and killed off what made this character so creepy before. But here's what I love so much about how Juan and Winnell approached the spirits in this movie. When we're seeing Parker's mother as a ghost, whether it's her vague shadow behind a shower curtain or her slapping Renee in the living room, we're not actually seeing her spirit, what we're seeing is the manifestation of Parker's memories of her and the way that he sees her, which is a frankly brilliant way of justifying some of the elements of her portrayal that could very easily be seen as corny. These aren't just unmotivated corny scares. They're the ghostly reflections of things that Parker experienced as a child brought here to the house because his spirit has taken up Josh's body as his home. This also affects her appearance in the film being easily one of my favorite spirit designs in the entire Insidious franchise. I love the pale face, the bright red lips.

[00:10:59]She looks like a porcelain doll brought to life. And I know I tend to say this a lot when I talk about James Juan movies, but it's something I really love about his work. He and Winnell have a way of taking things that we see as generic or overdone and fully committing to them in a way that kind of serves as a reminder for why those things became so common to see in the first place. And this is a fantastic example of that. I mean, man, you don't just drop one of the most iconic images of a franchise without doing a good job on the design of the subject. Basically, this manifestation of his mother is trying to force him to kill people. Now, there's a lot that I really love about this, and the backstory itself paints a picture of a very tragic character, and we do have a couple of moments where you can feel that sadness in him, like him crying about not wanting to kill the family when she's trying to tell him that he needs to stop his body from rotting. But what's missing here, admittedly, is more of that tragedy in other moments. I think it's a shame that we have a genuinely emotional backstory here that has a lot of potential for an interesting villain, but there are just too many moments when it feels like Crane is written in a like stereotypical villain way. And we don't get that same conflicted sadness that we see in other scenes. Again, like that crazy over-the-top stuff works for Parker's mother because we're seeing the way that he remembers her. But I wish that his character had some more nuance moments in The Possession because it sometimes feels like we're seeing two separate characters. What they went on to do with Bill Wilkins in The Conjuring 2 is a really good example of the kind of thing I'm talking about. And while Parker Crane is without a doubt more evil than Bill Wilkins, that same sort of complexity could still be applied here.

[00:12:29]I just wish they focused more on that motivation of him killing out of not wanting the body to rot away. Like it's something he's doing out of panic and fear instead of just blood lust. It's kind of weird because that is the story we're told about, but often it doesn't translate to the actual moments when he's killing or attacking people or whatever, which I think is a shame. The other thing I wanted to mention about this is in regards to whether or not this takes away from some of the impact of seeing this character in the first movie. And no, I don't think it does because Parker's mother is just this manifestation of her. We can look at the spiritual version of Parker Crane that we see in the further as something similar in a way where it doesn't even necessarily mean that what we saw in the first film is actually the spirit of Parker Crane or anything, but potentially a manifestation of Josh's memories of being haunted by that spirit as a kid. Of course, that is entirely head cannon. But if you prefer the more vague version of this character, then I think through what's established in the second movie, you can absolutely still look at the bride and black in the first one through that lens. So, while the bulk of the scares come from these two, and I think the movie does an overall solid job with them, there's another element to this that's important to talk about, and those are Parker's victims.

[00:13:40]One thing about The Conjuring and Insidious is that while these movies are not like R-rated insane experiences and could definitely be watched by a younger audience, if you actually get wrapped up in the storyline and pay attention to the details, we're dealing with some really dark stuff here. I'm always surprised by how dark the stories are when I go back to them because the movies themselves don't have a super dark tone or anything, but the backstory here is pretty gnarly. While I love that moment of Parker's mother screaming for the aesthetics of it, I think that my favorite scare of the movie has to be this one fairly early on when Daltton is using the tin can telephone that Oh yeah, there's a second brother. I forgot about that dude. Yeah, Foster set this thing up earlier on and we get this great scene in the middle of the night where Daltton begins to speak to one of Parker's victims through it and then she appears in the room from the closet and is yelling at him. But what makes this so great is that her voice is delayed by a while and is still sounds like it's coming through the can.

[00:14:38]>> It's just really unsettling and captures like this nightmare feel that isn't always a focus of James Juan films. He doesn't tend to go too like dreamy or cerebral, but this scene has that vibe and it's so cool to see. Speaking of Foster, it's kind of a shame that Well, Insidious 2 is a great follow-up in many ways. The kids are like completely thrown to the side. Foster matters about as much as he did in the first movie, which is to say he's basically just a peripheral character to expand the family, but you'd think that after what happened with Dalton, he'd be a little bit more of a focus here, or at the very least would have something going on with him narratively. Like, that's got to be a lot for a kid to come out of, but he's just like, he's fine. I would have liked to see Foster have a bit more to do since he was almost entirely inconsequential in the first one, but the way Dalton's character is handled feels especially strange. It would feel less weird if he didn't play a vital role in the climax of the film where he returns to the further to help Josh get out. And man, I mean, first off, this feels like it comes out of nowhere since he's been completely sidelined for the entire movie. But on top of that, I have an extremely hard time believing that Renee would be willing to let him do this. Considering what happened last time she was there, she's already feeling like she's maybe lost her husband. And based on what we know about how cautious she is about these things, I don't see her letting this happen. I think that could have been a cool pressure point for the climax where she's against it, but he just goes anyway. But she instead just says yes after the second time he says he can do it. I'm not entirely against them pushing the kids to the side if they wanted to tell a different story. But if you're going to have Dalton come back around in the climax like this, then I feel like he should be more involved with the rest of the stuff that goes on.

[00:16:14]That being said, what we do have is still great. Of course, one of the big missing pieces here is Eliz, who uh well, yep. No, obviously she couldn't be here, at least not in her previous form.

[00:16:25]This time around, we have Carl, played by Steve Coulter, who also made an appearance in The Conjuring that same year. And I always love when this dude shows up. He's just very charming, and his character here certainly reflects that. Looks like I did the aging for the both of us. Oh, >> please stop it.

[00:16:39]>> I'm not sure if this was something that they always wanted to do or if they weren't sure whether or not Insidious would get a sequel and then were like, "Oh [ __ ] should we not have killed Elise?" He was never mentioned in the first movie, which seems a little strange considering he was working with the Lamberts before Elise and was the one to bring her in. But thankfully, Carl is a great character. It would have been so easy to just have him be a copy of Elise and that would have sucked. But they did a great job of making him his own distinct character with little touches like the dice that he uses to communicate with the spirits. I love this. For one, it makes him feel distinct, but it also feels like there's a cool character story somewhere in there, like he was a kid playing with dice or something like that and started to see strange messages in them. So, as he grew older, he just stuck with that approach because he knew that it worked for him. Those little details can go a long way in fleshing out a character.

[00:17:26]And I like how it creates a sense that different mediums in this world have their own idiosyncratic ways of communicating with the spirit realm.

[00:17:34]Personally speaking, I would take 26 keys on a piano, assign each of them a letter, and then have the spirits write a song for me to communicate. I would do this to bully the spirits who always wanted to learn piano, but never bothered. Haha, you're dead.

[00:17:49]Speaking of pianos, man, do I ever love how they made Rene's piano playing something that has a part in the story this time around. It was a cool character element before, but they found a very simple way to integrate it into the events of this film beautifully by having Josh try and get her attention a couple of times by playing her song from the further. I just love me a story where a ghost plays music. I don't know, man. Sue me.

[00:18:14]There's an atmosphere to that sort of thing that I've always really loved. And it's cool to learn that this strange ghostly thing that has been going on was really him on the other side. Pays off especially well since Parker has no clue what song she's talking about.

[00:18:27]>> You don't know that song?

[00:18:29]>> No, I don't.

[00:18:30]>> The one thing I will say is a bit odd is that she says that this is a song that she wrote for Josh. And that's a sweet idea and a good plot point, but uh well, the song doesn't actually seem to be about that. Maybe it goes on to be more about him at some point, but the only lyrics that we've heard from that song were about Renee feeling like she wasn't where she wanted to be in life, which is not the most romantic tune in the world.

[00:18:55]It's a small thing, but it probably would have been a good idea to just write another simple piece that actually fit with what they're portraying the song to be, or even just have her sing another verse about Josh in it at some point. Not a big deal, though. That sort of recontextualizing that happens with the piano playing is something that happens a fair bit in this movie. And it's here where so much of what makes Insidious 2 awesome comes out because it doesn't only do this within its own events, but returns to some of what happened in the first film and reframes these in a way that makes the first even better. Sequels can sometimes harm special elements, but this is one of the rare examples where they changed what we thought was going on in a scene, but made it exponentially more interesting.

[00:19:34]That sequence with the baby being sought after by that spooky demon dude in the middle of the night while the door kept opening originally was just a solid horror setpiece to establish some of the stakes in the story. But here with this movie leaning a lot into some timebending stuff that gets all flipped around when we find out what was actually going on during the sequence and why the demon dude didn't wind up getting anything done. While Josh is in the further with Carl, he winds up back at his house. And we witness that same attack from a different perspective this time with the reveal that it was actually Josh in the further who opened the door and set off the alarm and that they were spared from harm that night because Elise showed up in the nick of time and knocked the dude away. It's so cool now going back to the first movie and thinking about how there's like this good versus evil battle happening kind of in the future, but also not before we even know anything about what's actually going on with the spirits in the movie.

[00:20:24]It's nice to have a sequel not only do a solid job, but also enhance what came before it like this. Now, of course, we have the return of Specs and Tucker here, the amazing duo from the first film, who were Oh god, Jesus, I have to say it again. Um, Elisa's assistants. I got it. I've been practicing it before bed. And they're honestly even better this time around.

[00:20:43]>> Hunt a ninja bear. How does a bear beat a goddamn ninja? Part of that is that we're seeing somewhat more of an emotional side to them since they've lost a long time and very close friend.

[00:20:55]There's this interesting moment during their first scene when they're going to Elise's house after her death that's brief, but I think adds a lot to them where they talk about how the things that they've experienced should make them more okay when they lose someone.

[00:21:06]But Tucker puts it quite well.

[00:21:08]>> Turns out the living version of someone's always better.

[00:21:11]>> That's a really nice moment between them. They're still used as that bit of comic relief for the movie, but never to an extent that breaks the tone of the movie or anything.

[00:21:22]Bring it.

[00:21:23]>> Insidious 2 is a more grounded movie tonally than the first one. So, I think it's even less of a concern here, but it's not a problem in either film. These two are really great and are just a fun addition to the cast, and I'm glad they've continued to be a part of the franchise. They're just a really great like heart in the movies. Honestly, I'm impressed with how well they managed to avoid the feeling that killing off Elise was a mistake in the sequel since we still have these two and Carl as a solid character. This could have felt a lot more directionless. I also really liked the final scene of the film that shows them visiting a family with a daughter who seems to have been made catatonic in an accident. And they claim to have spoken with her and have come here to protect the family from the spirits that will attempt to take over her body. I like the thought that what they basically go on to do is have Elise find people who need help in the further and then guide these two to where they need to go. Now granted, if my daughter had been in an accident that left her comeomaos and someone showed up at the door saying they'd spoken with her, I probably wouldn't just be like, "Oh yeah, damn, that's crazy. Tell me more."

[00:22:20]They could have been a bit gentler in how they approached this, but it's not a bad way to send their characters off.

[00:22:26]Before we get into the ending of the film, we should talk a bit about some of the more technical elements because one of the things that I will always praise about James Juan is his commitment to style in his work. It's something that's like almost instantly recognizable when you throw on one of his movies. And Insidious 2 has a really interesting blend of what you'd find in Insidious and The Conjuring, which makes sense since The Conjuring again came out very close to when this one did. So, he was like right off working on that movie and developing his style more. I'm bringing this up now because the way that he transitions from those wonderfully atmospheric opening credits into the movie is just man, it's perfect. This police interview begins in a black void with the room they're sitting in alone and we slowly zoom into it, which is a super cool shot that also ties itself well into the further. One thing that becomes very clear when you start this movie is that the very drab gray almost dreamlike quality of the first Insidious is kind of gone here. It's not entirely missing. There are still some scenes that capture a similar feeling. It's somewhat more grounded, feeling a bit closer to The Conjuring in tone, but again, it's this really cool blend of both movies where we're seeing insidious stuff portrayed through the lens of The Conjuring. And those two movies are so damn stylish that if you combine them, you're in for a good time. It's almost shocking to see color in my Insidious movie. What buffthunery is this? You're telling me that skin can be anything other than gray? I need all my characters to look so dead throughout the movie that it makes me think Elise is just sleeping by the end of the first one because she's just [ __ ] sleeping.

[00:23:54]I don't know why people keep trying to tell me that Elise is dead.

[00:24:00]She's sleeping. This movie's got lots of those wide tracking shots that James Juan is so fond of. And there's a really great flow to how the scare scenes are handled here with things like floating in and out of the screen in ways that feel very much in line with like classic haunted house movies, which Juan has always shown a very solid understanding of. I've always loved the pacing of the sequence where Renee is attacked by Parker's mother in the living room.

[00:24:20]There's something about the way that she's floating in and out of the scene before appearing right in front of her that always tickles my brain a bit. Some of the imagery in this movie is genuinely creepy, too. sets like the chapel full of Parker's victims or the dilapitated hospital do a good job of making this feel like a sequel with a much broader scope than the first movie.

[00:24:36]And something that I really love about this chapel setup in Parker's house is that it feels like something that would be found somewhere in the further, but we're not there in this scene. It makes it feel like even in life, the man was so evil that he was basically living in a realworld version of the dark spirit realm, which is pretty chilling to say the least. I do always find it funny though that both of the places they're led to by the dice are conveniently abandoned and extremely easy to get into. You can imagine then just how horrifying it would have been for his victims where on top of being murdered, it's happening at the hands of someone who fits right in the spirit realm. And with that hint from the scene with Dalton that they're basically being perpetually tortured by the pain of what happened, it makes it quite easy to understand why these spirits want to possess him. Another thing that I love about this scene is that it's here where they find the disguise that Parker Crane wore while committing his murders. And when they approach the veil, we hear that really chilling string motif from the first film bleed into the soundsscape, which helps to tie that particular theme to Parker's character and really build the insidious nature of the character.

[00:25:40]I wouldn't say that the movie is necessarily scary, but it's got that fun James Juan style to the scares. It's just really enjoyable to get into and vibe with as a fun horror rip. I always look at these movies as just like walking through a haunted house. And I like haunted houses. Joseph Bashar once again scored the film and did an equally brilliant job as he did the first time around. Although again, this has a pretty different tone, so there's a different feel to the music as well. I will say though that scene of Parker's mother going at him for the picture that he drew that he signed with the with his real name and not the girl name that she tried to give him. There is a vibe to this scene that like it doesn't it's not scary, but it gives me like this feeling of just like this is this is a horror movie right here, man. Like this is so ghostly and weird. I love it so much.

[00:26:30]Getting into the end of the film, one thing that I can't end this video without mentioning is that while I'm pretty fond of Insidious 2 overall, I think that it genuinely has one of the worst lines I've ever heard in a movie.

[00:26:44]>> It's been so long since I felt real pain.

[00:26:47]>> I missed it, but not as much as I miss inflicting it on others.

[00:26:50]>> I I don't know how you filmed that and decide to keep it in. That's bad.

[00:26:58]Anyway, it's a fairly safe climax.

[00:27:00]What's nice is that we get to spend a bit more time with Elise as she finds Josh and Carl in the further. And I'm really glad that this happened because I mean, man, what what is insidious without Elise? I'll be honest, her character is mostly just here and doesn't have too many interesting moments, but that inherent Lynch charm goes all the way.

[00:27:16]>> So, that's what that was about.

[00:27:18]>> Elise manages to kill the memory of Parker's mother in the further, which basically pulls Parker back to the depths, and Josh is finally freed. I really love how Roseburn played this moment of like trying to figure out if Josh is actually back or if he's still possessed. Her hesitance feels really believable and it's ultimately him saying that he was playing her song that makes her believe him.

[00:27:37]>> If only you could play it that badly.

[00:27:40]>> Also, can we take a second, as I like to do in these videos, to praise Patrick Wilson. There's a lot more variation in his performance this time around since he has to play his normal self and his possessed self. But what really blows me away is the look on his face when he comes out of the further for the first time. You can see all of the love that he has for his family there. You can see how upset he is at the thought that they could be afraid of him. You can see how sorry he is for what they've been through and how he hasn't protected them the way he wishes he could. This face is honestly the most emotionally impactful thing that I've seen from this character in this franchise up to this point. Him and Roseburn were really bringing their agame for this sequence in particular.

[00:28:15]The film comes to a close with that scene I mentioned where Tucker and Specs go to the family and Elise sees something in the corner that freaks her the hell out before the film comes to a close. really looking forward to talking about that haunting when we cover Insidious 3, which of course will follow up on this setup. I was very pleasantly surprised revisiting this movie for this video. It had been a long time and honestly the main thing that stuck in my head honestly was that horrid line, but yeah, I think this is a really great sequel. It's not just rewriting the first movie. It's amping things up and getting more elaborate, and you can feel one's approach behind the camera evolving. The story has a lot of cool hooks to it. It's a good time. I find these characters really charming. I think there's enough that this movie does well and almost more importantly does differently from the first one that I would totally understand someone preferring this to the original. I have so much nostalgia for that movie and while I do have lots for this one without a doubt, I don't think I'd comfortably say I like it more, they're both good for different reasons. But the one thing that I will say is that the first one feels more distinct from the Conjuring franchise than this movie does. But I also love the first two Conjuring movies. So that's not a complaint. I think that these are different enough that it's just like, yeah, they're just good. I just like them both. Oh, and as for that nitpick I mentioned earlier, the camera that Carl is recording the session with Josh with is an RCA CMR 300, which is a VHS camcorder released in 1986. First off, it's cool that this camcorder came out the same year that the scene takes place in because it makes it seem like Carl likes to be very upto-date on his tech.

[00:29:42]But the reason I'm mentioning this is because while later on we see the VHS tape being watched by Tucker and Specs, when we see the footage from the camera during the scene, what we see looks like it's trying to emulate black and white 35mm film, which isn't remotely how this camera works. It's color VHS. But what's even stranger is that even when it looks like they're trying to emulate a film look, they include the UI from a digital camera over it. Does this matter? Not at all.

[00:30:11]Thanks for watching through to the end.

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