James Wan and Leigh Wannell's bonkers supernatural horror Insidious was one of last year's most profitable films, with final box office at somewhere around a hundred times its meagre budget. Naturally then, there have been rumblings of a sequel ever since. All involved said they wouldn't do it unless they had a really good idea, but it seems that inspiration has struck, since Insidious 2** is now officially underway{
The first film saw Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson moving house to escape a haunting, only to find that the ghosts came along, because they were haunting the family and not the building. Along the loony way, we met a creepy old lady in a black wedding dress, and a demon puppet-maker with a fondness for Tiny Tim records.
Without wishing to get too spoilerific, the ending certainly leaves scope for more. Quite apart from the bizarre business with Wilson, we don't know what happened to young Ty Simpkins either. As with the best horror, it works to leave matters ambiguous, but there are definitely threads to pick up.
The Hollywood Reporter confidently says that the film will shoot this year for a release in 2013, and has a distribution set-up (FilmDistrict in the US; Alliance in Canada and Momentum Pictures in the UK; Sony everywhere else) already in place. It's more cautious about the creative team that will be involved though, saying only that director Wan and screenwriter Whannel are "in talks" to return.
But Bloody Disgusting has a statement from Whannel suggesting that it's a full-on reunion (although there's still an "if" in there). "Insidious was the most fun project I've ever worked on," he says. "From start to finish it was an absolute joy... James and I both feel that we can mine more terror from the world we created and know that if we assemble every member of the original team, we will have an amazing continuation of the story for fans of the first film. See you in The Further.”
Nobody's yet saying whether we're likely to see Byrne and Wilson back again. We'll keep you posted - and if you're trying to keep busy in the meantime, read Wan and Whannel's **Insidious webchat here to refresh your memory.