Insidious: Chapter 2

After the financial success of Insidious In April 2011, discussions for a sequel soon followed. With producer Jason Blum insisting on the return of director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, a treatment script did not arrive until nearly a year later. "As long as there was a chance that James and Leigh were gonna write the second movie and direct the second movie, I didn't want to do it with someone else," said Blum. "They kept saying they might do it, they might not do it, which was why there's quite a bit of time between the two movies."[7] On February 2, 2012, it was announced that director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell were in talks to return for the sequel.[8]

While promoting The Conjuring (2013) at New York Comic Con in October 2012, Wan described how he and Whannell were working closely on developing the story and the script for the follow up to Insidious, explaining to ShockTilYouDrop.com, "I think the sequel to Insidious is kind of my reaction to Saw where for my own reason I wasn't as involved in the sequels, and so I felt with Insidious, think it would be good to shepherd it and keep it more in track to the version I had when I made the first film so that it doesn't detour too far."[9]

The film was titled Insidious: Chapter 2 because it is a direct continuation of the first installment.[10] However, the tone of the film was to be more grounded than in the first film, with Wan citing his work on The Conjuring as an influence to how he and Whannell approached Insidious: Chapter 2.[6] "I pulled things from Insidious that I applied to The Conjuring, and what I learned from The Conjuring I applied to Insidious 2," said Wan. "So for me, I feel like it's a cumulative filmmaking experience that I've gathered over the years."[11]

On November 19, 2012, it was officially announced that Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Ty Simpkins would reprise their roles from the first film.[12] The following month, it was announced that Barbara Hershey would also be returning.[13] In February 2013, Jocelin Donahue and Lindsay Seim rounded out the cast as younger versions of Hershey and Shaye's characters, respectively.[14][15] It was also confirmed that the film's screenwriter Leigh Whannell and actor Angus Sampson would reprise their roles as Specs and Tucker, respectively. When asked about the return of the two characters, Whannell explained, "There was this hatred that spewed out from fans saying 'I hated those guys! They sucked! They ruined the movie!' so there will probably be a lot of people out there who will be disappointed to hear that the Specs and Tucker characters will be coming back."[16]

Principal photography for Insidious: Chapter 2 began on January 15, 2013, in Los Angeles.[12] Having a slightly higher production budget than its predecessor, the film was captured over the course of 25 shooting days.[17] A bulk of the film was shot at a house in Highland Park, Los Angeles,[10][18] which served as the location of Lorraine Lambert's house. Another location used for filming was the former Linda Vista Community Hospital, which was redressed as a hospital setting and used for the construction of interior sets (including recreations of sets from the first film).[19][20] "I've never shot in Linda Vista," said Wan about the location. "It's kind of funny because Leigh and I have always heard so much about it. For research on the first one [Leigh] came here to do a bit of ghost-hunting. And I think a lot of that inspired us when we needed a hospital set."[20]

The musical score to Insidious: Chapter 2 is composed by Joseph Bishara,[21] who previously collaborated with director James Wan on the first installment as well as The Conjuring. "Finding the right range and tone for the feeling is an important part," described Bishara on generating tension through sound. "James is very particular with sting placement along with Kirk, our editor on both Insidious films and Conjuring. Silence can create a listening space, where rather than give you something else to listen to it enables you to hear things."[22]

A soundtrack album for the film was released digitally on September 15 and in physical forms on October 8, 2013 by Void Recordings.[23] Additional songs featured in the film include:[24]

• "Waiting For You" by Alan Ett
• "Piano Sonata in B-flat Minor, Op. 35, 3rd movement" by Frédéric Chopin

Prior to being officially announced, Sony Pictures Entertainment registered various domain names on November 28, 2011, for Insidious: Chapter 2.[25] On January 30, 2013, the first picture from the set of the film was released via writer Leigh Whannell's Twitter account.[26] Additional behind-the-scenes photos from the set of the film were released the following month.[27] In April 2013, the first promotional poster for the film went on display at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.[28] The first theatrical trailer for the film was screened to a live audience on location at the Linda Vista Community Hospital on June 4, 2013, with an online release the following day.[29] On August 10, 2013, it was announced at the convention Scare L.A by producer Jason Blum and Universal's creative director John Murdy, that a maze attraction entitled "Insidious: Into the Further" will be featured at the 2013 Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.[30]

While originally intended to be released on August 30, 2013,[12] Insidious: Chapter 2 was rescheduled for a September 20 release date.[31] The film's release date was later moved again to September 13, 2013.[3]

On the night prior to its theatrical wide release, the film was shown in select theatres as part of a double feature with the first installment.[32] A red carpet premiere for the film was held in Los Angeles on September 10, 2013.

Preliminary reports had the film tracking for a $32–$35 million debut in North America.[33][34] The film earned $1.5 million from its Thursday night showings,[35] and reached a $20 million Friday total, making it the biggest opening day in September box office history.[36] It went on to be the number one film during its opening weekend, taking $41 million at the box office.[37] The film grossed a worldwide total of $161,919,318 against a budget of $5 million.[5]

Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports a 40% approval rating based on 125 reviews, with an average score of 4.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Insidious: Chapter 2 is decidedly short on the tension and surprises that made its predecessor so chilling."[38] Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on 30 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[39]

Robbie Collin of The Telegraph gave the film a positive review, stating that "the scares are mostly very scary indeed, and that means the film does its job."[40] Scott Foundas of Variety praised the "artfully eerie" cinematography work of John R. Leonetti and the "pervasively unsettling atmosphere" constructed by sound designer and editor Joe Dzuban. Foundas further wrote that "where so many sequels seem like mere remakes of their predecessors, with bigger budgets and less imagination, Insidious: Chapter 2 feels like a genuine continuation of characters we enjoyed getting to know the first time around, and wouldn't at all mind returning to again."[41] Conversely, Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times commented, "After the pleasurable free fall into old-fashioned nightmare artistry that was last summer's The Conjuring, this busy-yet-dull sequel feels like Wan robotically flexing his manipulation of fright-film signposts, an exercise more silly than sinister."[42] Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Setting aside the movie's tediously lame dialogue, self-conscious performances and frequently predictable scares, the narrative's compulsively shifting chronology intermittently manages to engage, although it does little to obscure the distracting shortcomings of both plot and character development."[43]

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 10, 2013.[44]