INSIDIOUS – CHAPTER 2 (15, 105 mins) ***
Starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Andrew Astor, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye, Steve Coulter, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Danielle Bisutti. Director: James Wan.

If you weren’t spooked by James Wan’s 2011 supernatural horror Insidious, you stand little chance of making sense of this self-reverential sequel which is disappointingly light on edge-of-seat shocks.

Chapter 2 continues directly after events of the first film and repeatedly throws back to unexplained phenomena from the opening chapter. The mood swings between suspense and comedy prove even more jarring in the second instalment courtesy of bumbling spectral investigators Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Sampson), who take important decisions by playing a variation of paper, rock, scissors called bear, hunter, ninja.

Dialogue creaks almost as much as the house at the centre of the malevolent manifestation.

When we last met Josh Lambert (Wilson) and his wife Renai (Byrne), they had moved into a new house with their sons Dalton (Simpkins) and Foster (Astor), where dark forces prevailed. Josh’s mother Lorraine (Hershey) invited her supernaturally gifted friend Elise Rainier (Shaye) to cleanse the property, aided by Specs and Tucker. In the ensuing battle between good and evil, Elise gave up her life to shepherd Josh and Dalton between the corporeal and spirit worlds.

Chapter 2 opens with a flashback to 1986 and Elise’s first encounter with young Josh. Fast-forwarding to the present day, police probe Elise’s demise, forcing the Lamberts to move in with Lorraine.

The family prays the nightmarish ordeal is over. Of course it’s not.

Josh begins to behave erratically, which sets poor Renai on edge, and her nerves are shredded when she is attacked by a ghostly figure (Bisutti) in the living room. Weird episodes increase in frequency and Lorraine approaches Elise’s old cohort Carl (Coulter) in the hope that he can connect with the dearly departed.

Insidious – Chapter 2 is even more ludicrous than the first film, squandering the talents of the cast in thankless and occasionally risible roles. Wilson and Byrne are both reduced to gibbering lunatics while Hershey stumbles blindly around abandoned buildings – an apt metaphor for the directionless script.