Insidious is Terrifying Without the Gore.
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Insidious is what you'd expect when you put the writer-director team of Saw together again in a PG13 setting. This film exceeds all our expectations, putting a new spin on demonic haunting by following intelligent humans into the ghastly netherworld called 'the Further'. The creepy images in this film - a mysterious figure suddenly appearing behind the baby's crib, a veiled woman staring through the window, children giggling, the most insidious flame-faced creature appearing with Tiny Tim's 'Tiptoe Though The Tulips' playing in the background - will not soon be forgotten.
Horror Queen Says: Bloody Thumbs Up!
Written by BHM Editor Horror Queen
April 1, 2011
Release: April 2, 2011 (U.S. Theatrical)
Directed by: James Wan
Written by: Leigh Whannell
Starring:
Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert
Rose Byrne as Renai Lambert
Ty Simpkins as Dalton Lambert
Andrew Astor as Foster Lambert
Lin Shaye as Elise Rainier
Similar to the film Paranormal Activity, Insidious focuses on a family that's become victim to the haunting of… well something evil. Shortly after the Lamberts move into a new home and their son Dalton hits his head and mysteriously slips into coma-like state, the rest of the family starts experiencing sinister disturbances - missing moving boxes, creepy voices on the baby monitor. The Lamberts assume it's their new house that's haunted, and move again. Unfortunately, had they read up on paranormal activity, they would have called in the ghost hunters before the move where they would have found out 'it's not the house that's haunted…it's your son'.
We knew something was up with Dalton, especially with his brother Foster could no longer sleep at night because he heard his comatose brother 'walking around'. When the family finally does call in the expert, Elise Rainier and her entourage of comedic assistants, they take a very personal interest in the case and in fighting the evil spirits trying to take over Dalton's little body and make their way into our world (as if we don't have enough problems here).
Acting performances in the film are superb. Not once did I think to myself 'why on earth would that character do that?' which is rare in watching a horror film. Both Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson, Hard Candy and Rose Byrne, 28 Days Later), once they realize what's happening, will stop at nothing to save their children from this insidious demon, even if it means confronting their own.
So much of this film is truly unsettling - long silences followed by ominous creeks in the attic, old-fashioned ghosts with creepy smiling faces appearing suddenly out of no where, bloody handprints on Dalton's bed sheets. Director James Wan often uses hand-held and point of view shots to draw us in, which he certainly does, right up until the unpredictable ending.
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