Insidious and Saw director James Wan has already achieved one hit this year with his "true story" ghost horror The Conjuring, which was proclaimed the most terrifying film of the year (so far) by many critics and already has a sequel in the works. Soon we'll get to see whether Wan can pull of that kind of success again, as his second haunted house tale Insidious Chapter 2 will arrive in theaters this fall.

As the first film reminds us, of course, it's not really the house that's haunted. The trouble began when a band of mean-spirited (no pun intended) ghosts latched on to young Dalton Lambert and whisked his soul away to a mysterious realm called The Further, leaving his family to fend of their otherworldly intruders whilst at the same time calling on a group of ghosthunters to try and get Dalton back.

Insidious Chapter 2 is all about the Lamberts trying to escape their traumatic past, only to find themselves once more facing a legion of new horrors. Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) is on the verge of an Amityville Horror-style transformation into a serial killer, and Renai (Rose Byrne) is occupied with trying to keep ghostly hands away from her baby. All of these frights are teased in a new gallery of high-resolution stills and behind-the-scenes photos:

THE PHOTOS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

After everything that Dalton's been through, Henry James' chilling novella "The Turn of The Screw" (upon which Jack Clayton's 1961 horror film The Innocents is based) is probably not a book that he should be reading right before bedtime. Perhaps it's being used in the scene as some kind of visual pun, like Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" in Evil Dead II. More likely, though, is that it's simply included as an homage to the classic ghost stories that influenced Insidious and Insidious Chapter 2; the 'turn of the screw' referred to in the title of James' book is the fact that the evil spirits are targeting children.

Based on what's been shown so far in the trailers for Insidious Chapter 2, it feels like the film will be very safe-contained, even claustrophobic. It has a slightly higher budget than its predecessor, but Wan has always had a talent for creating horror with minimal resources, practical effects and old-school camera tricks. Like the previous film, Insidious Chapter 2 will venture into The Further, and there will also be some time travel elements.

Do you think the Lambert family will all survive a second attack in Insidious Chapter 2? Tell us how you think their story will end in the comments.

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Insidious: Chapter 2 opens in U.S. theaters on September 13th, 2013.

Source: FilmDistrict