Insidious

If you know me at all, my all time favorite genre of film would have to be horror. I've tried to explain it before but apparently I'm the only one that understands. I find that even though I love horror movies, I am very rarely actually scared by them. I continue to watch them out of the hope that a movie will come along and finally make my skin crawl with suspense and terror. I am happy to declare that 'Insidious' has come the closest to achieving exactly that.

Directed by horror and suspense expert James Wan (Saw, Dead Silence and the Kevin Bacon thriller Death Sentence), written by the just as experienced Leigh Whannell (writer of Saw 1, 2, 3, Dead Silence and star of the original Saw), and produced by Oren Peli (writer and director of Paranormal Activity), Insidious is an excellently crafted and utterly chilling demonic thriller.

Happily married couple Josh and Renai, played superbly by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, are adjusting to the new house that they have moved into with their three children, Dalton, Foster and baby Calli. Housewife Renai is soon plagued by terrifying footsteps and noises in the attic while Josh is at work and the boys are at school.  Hearing these same noises after school one day, the oldest boy Dalton meanders into the attic to have a look and while attempting to turn on the lights, falls off a ladder and sees something terrifying lurking in the shadows. Seemingly unharmed, Dalton is put to bed for the evening and all is calm until the morning when Dalton doesn't wake up.  Three months later, in a coma-state, Dalton is returned to his room in a hospital bed with In-home care.

Here is where the movie really gets going. With Josh at work and Foster at school, Renai is subjected to some of the most terrifying situations I've ever witnessed. Phantom voices coming from the baby's room, ghostly faces appearing in windows, grown men pacing back and forth on the balcony at night outside her bedroom window, the younger boy Foster claiming that he can't sleep because Dalton walks around the house at night. I'm getting goosebumps right now, seriously. Confessing all of these things to her husband Josh, whose way of dealing with it all is to avoid it completely, Renai hopes to convince him that something bad is happening in the house and they need to get out.  After Josh witnesses his own share of skin-crawling situations, he decides that maybe Renai is right and they should leave the house. But what happens when it isn't the house that is being haunted? 

Convinced by Josh's mother, Renai enlists the help of Elise, a paranormal expert, to figure out what is happening to her child. Are the demons the reason that Dalton won't wake up, or is the fact that Dalton won't wake up, the reason that the demons are there?

Starting from the most unsettling opening credits I've ever seen, 'Insidious' grabs you and won't let go.  Filled with chilling music and excellent camera work, the movie is crafted into a disturbingly real depiction of a deeply paranormal event. I found a few scenes towards the end to be slightly cliche and poorly shot. It seemed like one scene in particular was filmed in someones basement at the last second.  Also, the story sort of falters towards the end with some jumps in believability in order to make the characters arrive at the intended position for the final act to make sense.  I have been deeply disappointed with the direction that the horror genre has been heading recently but 'Insidious' makes me believe that the time of the horror movie is returning.

If you enjoy having the crap scared out of you, please go see this movie in theaters. I'm sure it won't be the same on DVD unless you have black-out blinds and an excellent sound system.

I give 'Insidious'  8.5 demons out of 10

"Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it."