Insidious: Chapter 2 (post viewing article, contains spoilers)

We have a new antagonist and a new take on the old one.  I am not talking about the crazy red guy who loves to "tip toe through the tulips", I'm talking about the Black Bride.  She's a he?!!?  I did not see that coming.  Did you?  The Black Bride's real name is Parker (not Marilyn) and she is a he!  The new antagonist is his mother who is trying to fit a round peg in a triangle hole by forcing her son to dress and act like a woman.  Parker ends up in a mental hospital because he tried to castrate himself and he was under Josh's mother Lorraine's care.  He died back in 1986 when Josh first started to experience the dark realm by jumping out of a tall window to his death.  Parker's mother apparently already dead at some point by 2013 has been trying to get him to take Josh's body, and take it he did.  As it turns out, Parker (aka the Black Bride) took Josh's body leaving him in the dark realm.

Parker as the Black Bride above, Crazy mother below

 
Though Elise is dead, she is still helpful from "the other side".  Even though we don't get much quality acting from this actress, I was happy to see her back as she was the only one who really knew what was going on with all of these issues. 

I was excited to see the additional layering in the story as time went on.  Everything was perfectly timed.  With Parker we first found out that he tried to castrate himself and then that information provided to be meaningful when we found out about his mother making him act like a girl.  He only wanted to please his mother, ultimately. 

 Crazy mother and Parker in a girl's dress

Another example is when young Josh said something back in 1986 that we the viewers and people in the room didn't understand at the time.  Later as they worked through the grainy image trying to make it more clear we see that he was actually talking to a visiting current version of Josh, responding to the question: where he can find the Black Bride. 

The response is the part that I don't care for... 

It bothers me how these "ghosts/entities" travel, crossing between the two worlds through this red door.  Sometimes it's the red door and sometimes it's not.  I still, after repeat viewings of Chapter 1 and seeing Chapter 2 today, have no concept of how transportation works in regard to being a ghost in the real world to being a guest in the dark world.

I want to know your thoughts.  What did you think of the movie?  Were you happy to see Elise's return?  Were you shocked that the Black Bride was really a man?  Sound off in the comments below!