Chapter 2 picks up from the original film and runs off in ridiculous directions - some interesting and effective, others just plain bizarre, referencing a whole range of genre glories from Poltergeist to Psycho. The wheels seem to fall of the plot quite early but, with a lot of forgiving, it miraculously all comes together at the end. Performances are mostly solid (but won't be troubling the Academy voters next year), although the actors have to battle with largely lacklustre dialogue. The new generation of viewers will at least be acquainted with a range of possession/haunted house clichés, from Paranormal-style repeated motifs that strain tolerance to old-fashioned nicely-set-up in-camera effects, but there is one superb shock (and shocking) sequence about a third of the way through that demonstrates the real potential here that is generally not displayed elsewhere. It is all very silly and would barely be tolerable if it had been released for the Halloween season, but Chapter 2 is more interesting than the original, even if the laughter-inducing final scene set-up for the next instalment ends the film on a rather easy-to-dismiss note.
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