The horror film Insidious 2 hit theatres today (Sept 13 2013) following its predecessor 'Insidious' that was released in 2010 and features the original cast of Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey and Ty Simpkins.

The director James Wan is becoming a 'horror' expert as of late with this year's summer hit 'The Conjuring' receiving a very positive reception. So how did chapter 2 fare?

The Lambert family pick up where the final imperative scene from the 2010 film left off. Josh Lambert (Wilson) had to travel in an unearthly dimension called 'The Further' to save his comatose son, Dalton, from a demonic spirit. However the family's return to normality is abruptly halted when concerns for Josh rise as they speculate that he went into 'the Further' but never came out. Josh may not be Josh anymore.

The paranormal activity is returning at a continuous pace, much more ferocious than the first film, and since Josh seems to have vacated his body, the protagonist now becomes the wife Renai (Byrne).

In an interview with Shock, director James Wan discusses the reason for starting where the 2010 film finished "Emotions are still very fresh and very high. The characters are still high strung so to speak". He further added "everyone knows something is going to happen. And if your characters don't acknowledge that something bad is happening when it is happening, they just look stupid".

So did this film out-perform the first chapter? The Telegraph's Robbie Collin argues that it "expects its audience to have a detailed understanding of that first film's characters and rulebook. Anyone who does might feel a pang of disappointment that the plot is even feebler this time, and becomes slightly bogged down as Renai, her mother-in-law (Barbara Hershey) and a team of ghost-hunters engage in some Scooby-Doo-like detective work. But the scares are mostly very scary indeed, and that means the film does its job".

The audience watch a horror to be shocked and frightened, so hopefully Wan will continue his hot form in the paranormal genre.

Insidious: Chapter 2 hit cinemas today (Friday 13th September), will it leave you sacred to turn the light off?

rose byrne
Rose Bryne stars alongside Patrick Wilson in the new horror film