The thing about being novel, is you can only do it once. Though they rescued their son in the previous installment from the ghostly world which took him, dad Patrick Wilson came back wrong. As the hauntings continue, and Dad's teeth start falling out, the first film's ghost hunters search old records to deduce what killed their mentor. The two plots merge in what could charitably be called The Shining meets Back to the Future: Part 2. Indeed, Rose Byrne's horrified housewife is reminiscent of Shelley Duvall's wide-eyed panic and contorted brow. Director James Wan pulls off some of the same tricks that made the previous chapter so creepy, but the menace of the unknown is diluted now that everyone's working around a defined mythology. Once Patrick Wilson starts hunting his family, the unsettling ghosts are substituted for violent slapstick. Oh well, let's see what Chapter 3 is like. —Jacob Boon