Insidious: Chapter 2 has no thrills

Insidious: Ch.2 provides cheap thrills and scares for movie goers from TalonMarks on Vimeo.

It’s an ambitious career goal for Patrick Wilson to attempt to surpass himself while still riding on the success of “The Conjuring.”

Unfortunately, “Insidious: Chapter 2” has caused him to fall face down right into the darkness that he got lost in during the first “Insidious” movie.

Reuniting with Rose Byrne and the rest of the “Insidious” cast, Wilson reprises his role as Josh Lambert and spends most of the movie eerily smiling and blinking ominously at his onscreen wife.

The movie begins with a small excerpt from Wilson’s character’s shady childhood and promptly picks up the story line right where it left off in 2010.

At the end of the last film, the Lamberts had decided to relocate to Lorraine Lambert’s house. Predictably, her house is an old, three story, Victorian house. James Wan, the director, milks this setting for all it’s worth.

Relying heavily on squeaky hinges, darkened rooms and sudden loud noises, this attempted horror flick comes off as more of a spoof to the horror genre rather than a serious attempt at macabre.

The scare tactic for the first half of the movie is a child’s unusually noisy toy being kicked about in a dim room.

Byrne then gets promptly slapped by an entity that strangely resembles a Victorian Cinderella. The paranormal investigators’ solution to this problem is to roll about a bunch of glorified Scrabble letters in an effort to contact another spirit for help.

If the above paragraph doesn’t already suggest it, unnecessary comic relief runs rampant throughout the movie.

Among the faux pas, the most used included useless dialogue, misplaced innuendos and unintentional slapstick violence.

The film’s one redeeming feature is the plot’s continuity between the first movie and this one and the connection between the Lamberts and the hauntings…sadly that’s about it.

Wilson’s actions beyond blinking and smiling are limited to angrily pounding a seemingly impenetrable door while viciously growling as he tries to catch his wife.

Byrne doesn’t seem to learn from getting smacked and continues to run around her mother-in-law’s house with her arms flailing, screaming at the top of her lungs while desperately clutching her children, who conveniently return from the babysitter’s just in time for the movie’s climax.

There’s an odd motive to the ghosts haunting the Lambert family, and if one examines it close enough, the film almost comes off as a PSA for bullying that one had to pay $12 per ticket to sit through.

Clocking in at an hour and 45 minutes, Insidious: Chapter 2 feels about 55 minutes too long.

Because this is a PG-13 movie, those who thrive on cheap thrills will enjoy this movie.

If you enjoy laughing while the incredibly squeamish wriggle about in their seats, you will enjoy this film.