Insidious
- Year:2010
- Rating:MA
- Director:James Wan
- Cast:Barbara Hershey , Rose Byrne, Angus Sampson, Patrick Wilson
- Release Date:May 12, 2011
- Distributor:Icon
- Running time:102 minutes
- Film Worth:$15.50
- FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
While the third act descends into silliness, for the most part this is a superbly crafted and genuinely scary flick that borrows brilliantly from horror classics.
Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell are not ones for subtlety. Creators of the Saw franchise and other horror nasties, their schtick is to aim straight and hit hard, and so it goes with Insidious, a creepy little thriller with a mish-mash of new and borrowed ideas, that may just be their best film yet.
Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne star as Josh and Renai Lambert, a suburban couple who move into a new home with the hope of starting afresh. When their son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), falls into a coma, their lives are turned upside down as demonic entities come scrapping for Dalton's body while his soul is trapped elsewhere.
Insidious wears its influences heavy and proud. The Exorcist and Poltergeist are obviously films which have burrowed themselves into the minds of Wan and Whannell, and they have been reborn here into one chilling amalgamation, spurred on by a jarring, fractious musical score by Joseph Bishara, and a memorable performance by Lin Shaye, who plays a maternal but forceful spiritual medium with just the right tone and energy.
But Insidious also proves itself to be a genuine entry in the demonic possession film canon. A unique séance sequence is both berserk and entertaining, while the use of astral projection is a feature rarely used in horror movies, and perhaps for good reason, with the third act descending into silliness akin to a ghost ride set in an alternate dimension.
The best thing about Insidious is its lack of pretention. Wan and Whannell know exactly what they want, and that is to scare and entertain their audience with a superbly crafted horror movie ripped from the old school and retooled for the new, in the process proving that they can create a genuinely scary movie just as effectively as they could make a horrific one.
