Insidious (2010)

Insidious (2010)

First off let me say that Insidious is one of the bloody scariest movies I have ever had the privilege of watching in theatres.  I liked it so much that I decided to go see it a second time later the next week, once I was able to resume sleeping with the lights off.  Insidious was written by Leigh Whannell, who also stars in the film as Specs; one of the comedic tech guys.  James Wan brought Whannell vision to life on the big screen.

The Plot

This film follows Josh and Renai Lambert as they start a cute little family together.  Renai (Rose Byrne) is a stay at home mom who is trying to make it as a musician while raising three small children.  By the sound of her piano playing and voice I would say she has her work cut out for her.  Her husband, Josh (Patrick Wilson) is a school teacher who must be committing some kind of tax fraud or selling meth to be able to support his family and put them up in such a beautiful home.  Anyway, one day little Dalton (Ty Simpkins) is playing superhero in the attic, when he falls down and hits his head.  When Josh and Renai put their clumsy little sweetheart to bed everything seems fine but *SPOILER* it's not.  Dalton doesn't wake up the next day.  The doctor explains that Dalton is in a coma, but cannot tell Josh and Renai much else.  He doesn't know what could be causing the coma because all of Dalton's vital signs are normal.  After a few days of tests, the Lambert's bring the newly comatose Dalton back home in his fancy new hospital bed.  This is when things start to get weird.  The house alarm goes off randomly in the night, Renai starts seeing people moving in the house, and there are strange voices coming through the baby moniter.  Things escalate to the point where Renai starts to believe the house is haunted.  Like any rational person who has seen enough horror movies, Renai insists that they move out immediately.  Josh, being the ever supportive husband, obliges his wife's request and finds a new house.  Bravo!  The new house, by the way, is far less creepy than their first.  Renai seems content and starts to feel safe again when it is suddenly made clear that whatever was in the first house has followed them to the second house.

Josh's mom refers Renai to an old friend who knows a thing or two about hauntings.  Enter The Ghostbusters Elise Rainier, a psychic medium, and her two Mormon looking cronies.  She looks around the place for a bit and confirms that the Lamberts are indeed experiencing a haunting, only it's not the house that is haunted, but their comatose son Dalton.  She explains the theory of Astralprojection, where Dalton leaves his physical body and travels about in astral form, like a spirit.  He believes he is dreaming, so he isn't afraid to explore.  Only problem is he travels too far and ends up in a nasty place called The Further, a kind of hang out for all things evil.  He becomes lost here and is unable to return to his body.  The empty body begins to attract several malevolent spirits and one vaguely familiar demon,

Hey I didn't know this was a Darth Maul origin story!?

 who attempts to gain entry to the body to presumably take control and fuck shit up.  Elise and Josh must team up to enter the further and bring Dalton's spirit back before Darth Maul the demon can gain access to little Dalton's body.

My Take

This movie is anything but a one dimensional horror flick as it blends slow building suspense, pop out scares and an excellent story line.  It has all the makings of a home run, so why wasn't it?

Lets start with the pros.  This movie absolutely scared the shit out of me, twice.  It goes from quiet creeping suspense to loud, booming sound effects that accompany vicious pop out scares.  Some of the scares take a second to register, but when they hit home it they are terrifying.  For once, a movie managed to bring a chilling story and effectively used pop out scares.  There is also minimal gore in this movie and it is relatively non violent, making the level of terror experienced in this film even more impressive.  The idea of travelling in Astral form while dreaming is something that I found to be deeply disturbing.  My dreams were plenty scary before, now this James Wan character has to come along and ruin the way I have nightmares.  I also liked the whole capture the demon on camera idea included in this film.  When Elise and Josh's mom reveal the photo's of young Josh being followed by the witch that haunted his childhood, I was genuinely disturbed.  There was also one scene that is burned into my nightmares.  You know when you wake up in the night and see a person standing in your room, but after a couple seconds of staring you realise its just a pair of sweats handing from your door?

I see this every fucking night

Now on to the bad, thankfully there isn't much wrong with this film.  The only problem I really have is in the latter part where Josh travels into The Further.  One of the best parts of this movie was the ominous nature of the demon.  We only ever caught brief glimpses of him, but we always knew he was there, watching.  The prosthetics and costume design of the demon are more impressive when he is always shrouded in darkness, he's way creepier that way.  All of this is wasted when we see a cheesy CG scene of the demon chasing Dalton down a hallway with it's stupid goat feet.  WHY?  I understand this film needs a climax, but there must have been a better way than this.  One scene separates this movie from being an all time great horror movie.  Wan did manage to salvage the ending though, which I believe to be quite good.

The Verdict

Don't let that one silly scene ruin this movie for you, I'm simply letting you know that it's there.  I implore you do disregard it when watching this movie to allow you to enjoy the rest of it.  Insidious is an excellent horror movie.  It had me on the edge of my seat literally the whole time.  It is best enjoyed on a big screen, in the dark, maybe in a house that you don't entirely trust.  The sheer brilliance of the storytelling allow this film to hold up and remain terrifying, even after you know where all the pop out scares are.  I firmly believe that if you can't appreciate this film as a horror great, you probably watched it under suboptimal conditions (in the day, cuddling your teddy or something).  Watch this movie and enjoy it god dammit, life is too short.

8.5/10