I Watched Inside Out 2 And Found It Scarier Than Any Horror Movie

Summary

• Inside Out 2 is more realistic than any horror movie, depicting anxiety as a villain capable of taking over our minds.
• The sequel delves deeper into the complexities of anxiety, showing how it can hijack control and create terrifying scenarios.
• Despite a temporary resolution, the presence of Anxiety in Riley’s mind leaves room for relapse, reflecting the ever-present threat.

Inside Out 2 is 2024’s most successful family-friendly movie – yet when I watched it, I found it to be one of the most profoundly unsettling and outright terrifying theatrical experiences of my life. As a die-hard horror fan, there has been plenty to enjoy in the genre over the past year. From Nicolas Cage’s sinister giggling villain in Longlegs, to the raucous horror comedy of Abigail, there is a healthy audience appetite for explicitly scary movies. However, while many have delivered from a commercial and critical perspective, none have been as personally distressing as the seemingly innocent Pixar animation.

Inside Out 2 picks up where the iconic original left off. Protagonist Riley has moved beyond childhood innocence to the more uncertain world of adolescence. This change introduces a new range of characters alongside returnees like Joy and Sadness, all of whom play a crucial role in Riley’s journey of self-discovery and shape who she ultimately becomes. Spending time with familiar faces like Joy is a comfort. However, it is Inside Out 2‘s new characters that make the movie a surprisingly difficult watch – even if you’re ordinarily an advocate for more extreme cinema.

Inside Out 2 Is The Most Realistic Depiction Of An Anxiety Attack I’ve Ever Seen

It’s A Difficult Watch For Anyone Who Has Experienced The Condition

Unlike the original Inside Out, which explores how Riley’s emotions come to terms with growing up and change, Inside Out 2 has a much more explicit main villain. The first movie lacked a central antagonistic presence, instead making a nuanced point about how emotional growth is a painful but essential part of our development. The sequel flips the script with the introduction of a malevolent new character, Anxiety.

As Riley attempts to negotiate the social challenges presented by a new circle of potential friends at hockey camp, doing everything she can to fit in, Anxiety conducts a Die Hard-style hostile takeover of her emotional mainframe. Banishing Joy and the other original emotions to the back of Riley’s mind, she seizes control, crafting an entirely new personality based on insecurity, paranoia, and fear. The sight of a beloved character being literally rebuilt by something seemingly beyond her control is already scary enough. Things go up another level, however, when Anxiety herself loses control.

Towards the end of Inside Out 2, in a desperate attempt to secure Riley’s place on the hockey team, Anxiety pushes herself over the edge, working herself up into a literal whirlwind of frenetic activity that essentially short-circuits the brain. In the external world, Riley is left on the sidelines, completely incapacitated. Internally, Anxiety explodes in a blur of activity, making it impossible for any of the other emotions to function and seemingly rendering everyone helpless. It is only by a huge effort that Joy helps alleviate the symptoms and rescues Riley.

…in distilling what an anxiety attack literally feels like…no movie has come close to feeling so authentic.

With its anthropomorphization of emotions, Inside Out 2 is not strictly the most realistic movie in the world. However, in distilling what an anxiety attack literally feels like – as though something has seized hold of the wheel and has driven over a cliff – no movie has come close to feeling so authentic. It’s a testament to the creative team that they managed to achieve such a level of realism. The result, however, is that the movie is a sickeningly vivid recreation of real-life trauma for many viewers – consequently becoming a truly terrifying watch.

Inside Out 2 Is Much Darker Than The First Movie

Anxiety’s Villainy Is Much More Complex

The original Inside Out challenged all audiences with deep existential questions about what it is that makes us who we are. It was also deeply upsetting. Nine years on, I’m still not over the sight of Bing Bong slowly fading from Riley’s memory. However, while this scene and others like it were heartbreaking, Inside Out never presented Riley’s mind as an active enemy. By contrast, Inside Out 2 dares to take this provocative – and realistic – position with its depiction of Anxiety.

In many ways, Anxiety is not a traditional villain. Part of what makes her so unsettling is that she’s an inherent part of all of us, capable of hijacking the controls at any time. Beyond this potential, however, what makes her so scary – and dangerous – is that she believes what she’s doing is right. It’s a trait she shares with many of Hollywood’s greatest baddies, from Thanos to Darth Vader.

Anxiety’s constant refrain is that she’s only doing what she’s doing “for Riley“. However destructive the path she pursues, she is incapable of seeing that her attempts to help are the cause of, rather than the solution to, Riley’s problems. As anyone who has experienced anxiety knows, the kind of catastrophization depicted in the movie, where the brain sprints into overdrive to imagine the worst scenarios possible, can feel initially gratifying while being a shortcut to paralysis. These are deeply difficult home truths that eclipse anything in the original. For those with personal experience, it also creates a frightening reflection of real life.

Inside Out 2 Is More Believable Than Any Horror Movie

The Monster In Inside Out 2 Is Our Own Minds

Many horror movies create iconic villains to act as metaphors for our own experiences and deepest fears. The xenomorph in Alien, for example, is iconic not just because it’s a scary monster, but because it is a manifestation of physical invasion, preying on primal fears of parasites and assault. However, in most cases – and however effective the imagery – the monsters themselves are never real, and are therefore incapable of causing us harm. This isn’t the case in Inside Out 2.

Just as in the movie, anxiety is more than capable of taking over, twisting our outlook to the point where all we see is a string of terrifying scenarios that render us incapable of rational thought.

Although there is no literal “Control Room” in each of our brains where emotions cogitate on how best to control us, anxiety is a very real threat that many of us face. Just as in the movie, anxiety is more than capable of taking over, twisting our outlook to the point where all we see is a string of terrifying scenarios that render us incapable of rational thought. Inside Out 2‘s power comes from effectively bringing a real-life experience to the big screen. While this should be lauded, it is an undeniably raw experience.

Inside Out 2 Doesn’t Have The Happy Ending You Think

Anxiety’s Threat Is Ever-Present

Because Inside Out 2 is a Pixar movie, it does not end on a completely depressing note. Much as Toy Story 3 hinted at horrific trauma before saving the characters at the last minute, Riley is rescued from Anxiety’s grasp. The movie even makes a joke of Anxiety’s new reduced role, showing her relaxing in a corner. However, while this seems to suggest that things are now back under control, the truth is much more complicated.

Anxiety is still a feature in the control room, capable of twisting the fundamentals of what makes Riley ”
Riley
“.

Whatever shape the future of the Inside Out franchise takes, there remains the potential that – should things go wrong – Anxiety is more than capable of spiraling once again. The movie’s story hasn’t permanently addressed the problem. Instead, a temporary solution has been reached, with the possibility of regression. Anxiety is still a feature in the control room, capable of twisting the fundamentals of what makes Riley “Riley“. By default, this means that this potential exists within the audience too. The knowledge that we all have an Anxiety inside who, if left unchecked, can cause havoc without notice is a horrifying prospect.

This reality is even reflected in Inside Out 2‘s ending gag where Anxiety is shown as a part of Riley’s parents’ psyches. Although these versions of the character are something of a joke, their presence means that Anxiety is ultimately inescapable. Now that the franchise has already shown how susceptible Riley is to Anxiety, there’s every chance of a relapse. For anyone who knows how anxiety manifests, this is a dark truth that makes Inside Out 2‘s finale much more uncomfortable than it seems.