Insidious


4/4

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Barbara Hershey

Rated PG-13 for Thematic Material, Violence, Terror and Frightening Images, and Brief Strong Language

“Insidious” is the third re-teaming of “Saw” creators James Wan and Leigh Whanell.  While some may fear that the founders of the “torture porn” have sold out by making a more commercially viable PG-13 film (it should be noted that PG-13 horror movies are generally cinematic disasters), fear not.  Their latest film is easily their scariest film yet.

The Lamberts are your average American family.  Josh (Wilson) is a schoolteacher, while wife Renai (Byrne) is a stay-at-home mom and songwriter.  The family and their three kids have just moved into their new house, but Renai senses creepy things going on.  Things take a turn for the worse when their young son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls from a ladder and lapses into a coma during the night.  That’s when things really start getting weird.

To call this film scary is to put it mildly.  This film is downright terrifying.  And not just suspense-ish creepy, no, this is full blown horror.  And to think that they did it all without the blood and gore that is almost a necessity in a decent horror movie.  While some may consider this emasculation (I’ll admit, I was among their number until I saw this movie), the truth is the exact opposite.  This is a ghost story (combining elements from “Drag Me to Hell,” “Poltergeist” and “Paranormal Activity”), so all that’s needed are strong character identification and a menacing atmosphere.  Because Wan and Whanell are so good at accomplishing these two tasks, this film is much closer to the latter as opposed to the former.

Comparisons to “Paranormal Activity” are not unwarranted.  Although the level of fear isn’t as consistent as Oren Peli’s blockbuster-from-nowhere, there are plenty of moments where it matches, if not surpasses, the micro-budget scarefest.  Both rely on atmosphere and character identification rather than gory violence, and there are some definite similarities in their storylines (among them the theme of ghostly possession).  And not only is Wan able to execute a number of sudden shocks (that are actually scary), he is able to generate a sense of terror in many of the scenes.  Not many movies can make that claim.

The acting isn’t showy, but it gets the job done.  Wilson and Byrne are likable and easy to identify with, and the kids are natural performers as well.  Barbara Hershey and Lin Shaye are also good in smaller roles.



The film isn’t flawless (the scene where everything is explained comes across as ludicrous because of how it is written), and the ending twist isn’t as effective as it could be.  But apart from these relatively small narrative hiccups, the film is a very scary ride.  And for once, a film manages to keep up the tension once everything is explained.  That, combined with the level of terror that this film generates without any blood or gore makes this one of the few movies that actually overcomes its problems to earn a coveted four star rating.

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