The visionary director behind Saw, James Wan, has attempted once again to disturb movie goers with Insidious, which stars Patrick Wilson (Watchmen), Rose Byrne (TV’s Damages), and rising child star Ty Simpkins (The Next Three Days). The movie, written by Leigh Whannell (Saw, Saw II, & Saw III), captures a hauntingly weird story of “a family [that] looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called ‘The Further,’” as per IMDB.
While the very old-school score during the opening and closing credits makes for a modern-day homage to the likes of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the plot centers around Simpkin’s character, Dalton, who has been injured after falling off a ladder in the attic of the family’s new home. He goes to sleep one night and doesn’t wake up, yet all medical signs point to a coma. This is when the terrorizing forces of Dalton’s out-of-body experience begin to target the family. However, movies of the past like The Amityville Horrors and The Haunting have allowed us to predict that perhaps in this case, there are some paranormal forces historically embedded in this specific house. Once the Lambert’s move to yet another new house and try to start over again, it seems that the family has been followed by the same other-worldly spirits.
For as many times as I tried to avoid watching the movie’s very gripping trailer, we 
don’t hear about ‘The Further’ at all, but we already know that Lin Shaye (There’s Something About Mary) makes for a memorable line of dialogue with, “It’s not the house that’s haunted. It’s your son.” Not to mention that this is all brought to you by the producers of the Paranormal Activity franchise.
The film begins to expose the details behind what is antagonizing this seemingly innocent family until you’re already well-invested in the cleverly presented suspense. However, the movie fails to deliver any credible explanation of why this is all happening. (SPOILER ALERT!!!) The fantastically horrifying “astro-projection” of this hellish attack could have been developed a lot better. (END of SPOILER) This is the movie’s downfall, which will make it very forgettable in the next few months.
What makes it worse is the series of different characters, or beings rather, that Wan introduces, including a zombie-like bride reflecting in photographs, running ghoulish children, a long-haired Twilight-esque specter who appears and disappears from windows, and lastly, the evil red-faced creature with claws.
The movie is wrought with very unexpected and praise-worthy ingredients of suspense, beyond your typical creaking doors that open by themselves and stirring whispers through baby monitors. While most of the story itself focuses on Dalton’s circumstance, his mother Renai, played by Byrne, carries a great deal of the fear factor since she is the one who mainly comes face-to-face with these malevolent forces. It’s not until the second half of the film where we finally see Dalton’s father Josh, underwhelmingly played by Wilson, step up to pursue his son in a very Poltergeist kind of way.
The trailer for Insidious delivers more action and appeal than the entire narrative could hope to present. In my opinion, the movie gets a C+ grade and that’s only because the special effects thrived where the story failed. Perhaps a viewer who appreciates the peek-a-boo style of the horror genre and doesn’t focus on the legitimacy of the conflict at hand, will probably like the movie more. I would still recommend The Sixth Sense or The Strangers over Insidious any day of the week- no matter how many times I got suckered into screaming at the most dramatic moments of intensity!
The movie premieres on April 1st and if you’re interested in seeing this movie, check out the trailer below and this clip of Byrne discovering yet another scary attachment to her son!
Rating: 4.5/10
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