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DVD previews: ‘Insidious: Chapter 2,’ ‘Una Noche’

Here is a look at DVDs coming out Tuesday, Dec. 24:

“Insidious: Chapter 2” (PG-13, 90 minutes, Sony): When we last left the Lamberts in “Insidious,” eldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) had awakened from his comalike trance thanks to a rescue mission by his intrepid father. Like a paranormal Navy SEAL, Daddy (Patrick Wilson) had metaphorically rappelled, under hypnosis, into the spirit realm, where his son was being held captive. “Insidious: Chapter 2” picks up there. Where do you go with a tale that ended so over the top, in a fog-shrouded netherworld called “The Further”? Apparently, even further. Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell, who collaborated on the 2004 “Saw,” have made a name for themselves as horror auteurs. Here, they try to outdo what they did in “Insidious,” piling on plot twists borrowed from a host of other movies that, while in some cases are genuinely creepy, turn “Chapter 2” into an overly busy mess. “Poltergeist” seems to be the model for both “Insidious” films, which presuppose a parallel universe beyond the physical one, inhabited by malevolent entities who can drift in and out of our world, and into whose world some of us can also enter, willingly or not. “Insidious: Chapter 2” features a visit to the Further by someone tied to — kid you not — a piece of string. Contains violence and brief crude language. Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a short on how the actors were transformed into The Further ghosts through makeup effects. Also, on Blu-ray: a “Haunted Hospital: On Location” featurette; Whannell’s video journal; an on-set Q&A with Wan, Whannell, producer Jason Blum, Wilson and co-star Barbara Hershey; and “Insidious: Spectral Sightings” three-part webisodes.

Also: “Una Noche” (director Lucy Mulloy’s debut took honors at several 2012 film festivals and is up for a 2014 Independent Spirit Award for best first feature; in Spanish, it was filmed in Cuba, IFC Films), “More Than Honey” (a Swiss-German documentary on threats to bee colonies), “The Berlin File” (South Korea, CJ Entertainment) and “Frontline: Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria” (PBS).

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