"Insidious" is what happens when you take the director of one horror-movie franchise — "Saw" helmsman James Wan — and team him up with the producers of another — Jason Blum and Oren Peli of "Paranormal Activity." If that sounds about as promising as curry-mayonnaise pizza, well, it's not that bad: "Insidious" doesn't dabble in the torture-porn sadism of the "Saw" series, nor does it rely on the found-footage gimmick (and amateurish acting) of the "Paranormal" movies.

What the "Insidious" series does offer is spook-house scares galore, and "Insidious: Chapter 2" tries its hardest to keep you on the edge of your seat: creepy little kids in a trance, things that go bump in the dark, seances, poltergeists, apparitions that only appear in photos and mirrors, and more. It's certainly effective at what it does, up to a point.

"Insidious: Chapter 2" opens right where the first film left off. (Which was pretty much sequel-bait anyway.) Renai and Josh Lambert (Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) are relieved that their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) is back from his comatose state, where he was astral projecting into the spirit realm, but Renai senses something is wrong with her husband, who had entered that world to rescue their son.